A Cinephile’s Critiques

Directed by Taylor Hackford, 1997 (Color, 7:3, Surround, 145′)
Starring Keanu Reeves, Al Pacino, Charlize Theron, Jeffrey Jones, Judith Ivey, Connie Nielsen, and Craig T. Nelson

Kevin Lomax is a lawyer, and he’s remarkably good at his job. He doesn’t know how to lose. He’s more than just a competitor, he’s a winner. When, one day, he sees something that makes him doubt whether he should be using the questionable tactics he often uses in the courtroom, he gets over it and finishes his job anyway. That’s what winners do.

As it so happens, a law firm in the city, named Milton, Chadwick, and Waters, has noticed what a good advocate Lomax is, and, naturally, wants to hire him. But, The Devil’s Advocate isn’t the drama about legal ethics it initially appears to be. Instead, it’s both an effective horror story and a clever satire of American society.

Kevin, you see, is obligated to work long hours, be competitive, and win, because, like all American men, he’s responsible for supporting his wife and can never be allowed to suspect that he would be worthy of her, or anyone, if he wasn’t a winner. But his wife, Mary Ann, isn’t happy about Kevin’s obsession with work. The firm’s other wives seem cold and mean, and she feels so lonely in the city. What options do the couple have? Well, he can stay with the new firm, working late into the night, and be wealthy, or he can leave the firm, work late into the night, and be poor. It’s not much of a dilemma, really. Except Kevin’s mother keeps insisting that the city is Babylon, and Mary Ann just might be losing her sanity.

The Devil’s Advocate is a little more ambitious than that, though. Instead of merely making us uneasy, and occasionally shocking us, while questioning gender roles and institutionalized competition, it starts hinting that something bigger and more perverse is going on. The film’s central plot point, the one that allows you to understand what is going on, is the nature of the firm’s senior partner, John Milton. If you haven’t guessed it already, you might want to watch the movie before you read on.

John Milton, it turns out, is Satan, the same Satan who corrupted mankind in his namesake’s poem, Paradise Lost. So, why would Satan want to be a lawyer, aside from that fact that it’s funny? Not so he can argue theology, though he will at the end of the film. It’s because, in the 20th century, corporate law allows him to have a hand in everything. In fact, he’s doing so well practicing corporate law that he figures he’s at his peak, and it’s time to wrap things up for good.

The movie wants us to draw analogies between Christian theology and American society. It wants us to ask why horrible things keep happening. According to Milton, it’s because God created the world as a practical joke. Milton appears to be angry about it, but the film has already shown us that we can’t take him at his word. He claims people have free will, but prevents them from exercising it. He says he cares about people, but tricks them into doing destructive things. The film shows him playing his part in this philosophical gag and enjoying it. The film also shows people praying to God for help, with no help arriving. Lomax must outwit the Devil himself, and he does so, successfully, by committing what Christians believe is a horrendous sin.

So, is it all a joke? And, whether it is or not, how does this relate to our society? The Devil’s Advocate leaves that one up to us.