DEVIL’S ADVOCATE

“This is my century,” proclaims John Milton, who is none other than the Devil himself (played by Al Pacino), to his son Kevin Lomax (Keanu Reeves) in the ode to Satan which is entitled, THE DEVIL’S ADVOCATE, completely neglecting the fact that Jesus Christ won the victory on the cross and that Jesus, “very God of very God,” has all authority on heaven and earth. Either as a measure of Satan’s delusions or the filmmaker’s persuasion, the most noticeable aspect of THE DEVIL’S ADVOCATE is the absence of God as a force with whom the fallen angel known now as Satan must reckon because God alone is the sovereign, omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent Creator of the Universe to whom every century belongs. Not that the movie doesn’t contain any stained glass pictures of Jesus, statues, references to the Bible, and references to God − it does, but all these artifacts and references are ignored, summarily dismissed or treated with derision, as when Satan accuses God of being a pervert who likes to watch as well as a sadist who takes pleasure in making rules that He knows people are going to break.

Of course, since the movie is from Satan’s point of view, there can be an artistic argument for this blasphemous attitude, but in the best movie from this point of view, ANGEL HEART, Satan acknowledges the truth of Scripture that even Satan recognizes the Lordship of Jesus Christ. In that film noir, Satan said that he would not blaspheme or curse God, although he did everything in his power to destroy man. The dismissive and blasphemous attitude toward God makes THE DEVIL’S ADVOCATE almost a recruiting film, aimed at inducing the audience to sign up with the forces of the Adversary.

Kevin Lomax is a small town lawyer in Florida. He has won all his cases as a prosecutor and now is defending a teacher who molested a little girl. As the student gives her testimony, this disgusting teacher starts to surreptitiously fondle himself. Kevin notices and asks for a recess. A reporter confronts him in the bathroom, “Are you going to defend this pervert?” Kevin has a momentary crisis of conscience, but goes back to court and demolishes the little girl with a cruel, unfair cross examination, winning the case and getting him noticed by a powerful New York Law firm run by senior partner, John Milton. Kevin and his wife, Mary Ann (Charlize Theron), decide to go to New York in spite of his mother’s scripturally-based protests when he goes to tell her the news as she leaves the Sunday service of her fundamentalist church, where none of the parishioners can carry a tune and all of the parishioners seem embittered by life.

In New York, Kevin is offered everything. His first case is a billionaire Haitian Santeria ??? priest, who has been caught sacrificing animals in his basement. Kevin gets the priest off with a little help from the voodoo and a strong argument about first amendment rights. Next, he is called to represent one of the wealthiest developers in new York, Alexander Cullen. Cullen’s wife, son and maid have been shot, and Cullen’s fingerprints have been found on all the incriminating evidence.

Meanwhile, Kevin’s wife, Mary Ann, is getting spooked by the trappings of wealth and the solicitous attitudes of the wives of the other members of the firm. During one scene, the wives are trying on clothes. One of the wives, Jackie Heath, asks Mary Ann to tell her if her breasts look real and then goads Mary Ann into touching her breast. For an instant, Mary Ann sees Jackie transformed into a hideous demon who is sexually fondling herself. Needless to say, these encounters start to drive poor Mary Ann insane.

Kevin, however, is caught up in the fame, fortune and possibilities, including the constant stream of beautiful women who offer themselves to him. Kevin is so enamored of this lifestyle, that when he makes love with his wife, he sees the face and body of one of his female law partners. This is not nice stuff, but it is pornographic.

To make a very, very, very long movie short: Mary Ann goes off her rocker; Kevin’s church lady mother comes to New York to help take care of Mary Ann and tells Kevin that John Milton is his real father, having impregnated her on a Baptist mission trip to New York in the 1960s; Mary Ann commits suicide; Kevin confronts John Milton; and, John offers Kevin the world and the chance to be the father of the antichrist if he will only make love to his half-sister. From there, the movie has two trick endings, neither one of which is satisfying.

The audience at the screening cheered Satan, laughed at all the seductive scenes and cheered the blasphemy and mocking of God and the Christians. For all of his acting skills, Al Pacino overacted, appearing not so much to being the embodiment of evil, but rather the pimp of the century. His name’s sarcastic reference to the great Christian writer, John Milton, is probably the only intelligent aspect of his character. John gives long winded speeches that are more than tedious. Keanu Reeves achieves some moments of brilliance, but he has many more moments of losing track of his character, especially when he attempts to be compassionate towards his suffering wife. Judith Ivey as Kevin’s mother is such an awful stereotype of a Christian and such a poor actress that it makes one wonder whether she was cast straight out of a low budget church film. However, Charlize Theron as Mary Ann is superb, convincing every aspect of her character’s complex persona.

Although Kevin tries to make the right choice in the end, his escape from the clutches of Satan is based on his will, not on calling on the shed blood of Christ Jesus. Since it is only Christ who saves us from sin and death, Kevin’s deliverance seems contrived, trivial and temporary. In fact, when you consider the power that Satan exhibits throughout the film, power which he does not really have, then Kevin’s tricky escape seems all the more implausible. Perhaps the only real insight that this film gives is that too many in Hollywood worship the wrong person even though they know, according to this film, that the consequences are grotesque.