Saturday, September 28, 2002

Tempation is the Root of Devil

Devil's Advocate Pros: Amazing special effects, good performance by the cast Cons: Not suitable for children, explicit sexual scenes. Bottom Line: This is a good movie if you are a fan of Al Pacino and he is amazing in his role as the Devil. Plot Details: This opinion reveals everything about the movie's plot. ''..There is no greater calamity than lavish desires. There is no greater guilt than discontentment. And there is no greater disaster than greed..'' This movie is about good and evil and how good is tempted by evil. The story is complex and it takes sometime to sink your teeth in the core of the story, though you know whats happening.The dialouges are humorous and loaded with meaning which you have to comprehend.Another positive aspect of the movie is the special effects. Its amazing how the simplest of things can be made so evil and frightening. Al Pacino was outstanding as usual. Keanu Reeves played his part well. This film very explicitly depicts, sex and violence and all things which we would relate to evil. At the outset I would suggest that this film is not recommended for kids. Al Pacino portrays the SATAN. There have been many actors who portrayed Satan like Jack Nicholson in The Witches of Eastwick and Robert De Niro in Angel Heart but of all of them Al Pacino definitely takes the cake. His performances have always been outstanding be it in Scent of a woman or in the Insider or in the Godfather. In this movie he is an intense and as evil as the Satan himself. If devil existed in Earth It would be in the character of Al Pacino ( John Milton). Keanu Reeves has given a commendable performance. I had watched him in a couple of movies like Walk in the clouds and The Chain Reaction. I was pretty impressed. Here he plays the character of a lawyer who is tempted to sell his soul to the devil. Kevin is consumed with winning and winning cases become an obsession and that becomes his downfall. Story Keanu Reeves (Kevin) is an ambitious lawyer who has won about all his cases and has never lost one. He is shown trying to incriminate a young girl who has filed a sexual abuse case against her teacher. But he soon realizes that his client is guilty but he compromises with his conscience and wins the case. This case was a surefire lost case and no lawyer was willing to take it up. Kevin meets a representative from a law firm in Manhattan who was following up with his talents. He persuades Kevin to travel with him to Manhattan to meet his boss in order to convince him to work for them. Kevin agrees to take up the offer and goes with him to Manhattan with his wife. This law firm is huge and its main objective is to defend the criminals of the earth. John ( Al Pacino)is the head of the firm. This firm is monument of evil and all things thats associated with evil. John is a sly and expert manipulator. Kevin and his wife are given the best of everything, luxurious lifestyle, money and lots of dirty work. Kevin's wife is left alone at home and she slowly feels that something is not quite right. She hallucinates about the devil taking her soul, etc. She pleads with Kevin to leave but Kevin says that his career is going great guns and tells her that he would like to continue. Kevin’s wife slowly starts suffering from depression. Kevin himself starts hallucinating. When he is with his wife he sometimes sees his wife transformed into another beautiful woman who is his colleague. Both of them are made to see things, which are real as well as unreal. It’s the meeting of the real and the unreal world which makes it so complex. The monsters are shown in everyday things, people and sometimes it seems like a bad dream and sometimes its very real. John is the epitome of all vices and temptation. He is always surrounded by money, women, power and he keeps telling Kevin to be careful. He tells him that he will set the stage and it depends on him not to play the role,which he wants him to play. The interesting thing is that the devil is not shown to be a monster as it is generally perceived by the human consciousness. It is shown to be very human and take advantage of human flaws. It capitalizes on the vices and temptations and the choice is totally up to the people. In the case of Kevin, John tempted him with the high of winning cases. Meanwhile Kevin's wife gets to know that John is the devil himself and she cannot convince Kevin. Kevin thinks she is delusional. She dies in a horrible way and tell s Kevin before dying that John was responsible for her death. John is filled with rage and this leads to a heated confrontation. The finale of the movie is surprising. There is a lot of biblical meaning put into the finale. According to Satan if there was a offspring conceived by the devil's son and daughter, evil will rule the earth. Kevin happens to be John's son and the beautiful colleague about whom Kevin is tempted with is his sister. Kevin is persuaded to consummate the relationship with his sister with the John's blessing. At the last moment, Kevin refuses and shoots John. This spirals the audience to the first scene of the film where Kevin is fighting for that little girl. This time Kevin loses the case and the guilty is convicted of his crime. John is shown again in another role and tries to tempt Kevin. Kevin takes up the offer again and the cycle goes on. Recommended: Yes but parental discretion is good. Video Occasion: Better than Watching TV @ Pallavi 2002

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