Kevin Lomax has never lost a case. That is the pitch, and it is also the trap at the center of The Devil’s Advocate, Taylor Hackford’s 1997 supernatural horror film about a Florida defense lawyer who trades Gainesville for Manhattan and gets more than a corner office. Keanu Reeves plays Lomax. Al Pacino plays John Milton, the head of the New York firm that hires him. Charlize Theron plays Mary Ann, the wife who starts seeing things.
Trailer, via Warner Bros. Rewind.
A Guilty Client in Gainesville
The film opens with Lomax defending schoolteacher Lloyd Gettys against a child molestation charge. Lomax realizes his client is guilty. He cross-examines the victim hard, wrecks her credibility, and wins the acquittal anyway.
That sequence is the whole movie in miniature. Lomax is good at his job. His job is the problem.
The New York firm comes calling for help with jury selection. Milton offers him a position. Lomax and Mary Ann move to Manhattan, and the hours swallow him.
Mary Ann Sees What Kevin Won’t
Theron gets the worst of the script and does the most with it. Mary Ann is isolated in a strange city while her husband works. She has demonic visions. She dreams of a baby playing with her removed ovaries. A doctor tells her she is infertile.
Milton suggests Kevin step down from a trial to care for her. Kevin refuses, saying he would resent her for costing him the case. It is a small, ugly line, and it lands harder than any of the supernatural set pieces.
The newest attorney at the world’s most powerful law firm has never lost a case. But he’s about to lose his soul.
Alex Cullen and the Perjured Witness
Kevin’s big case is billionaire Alex Cullen, accused of murdering his wife, his stepson and a maid. Craig T. Nelson plays Cullen against type. Preparing Melissa Black, Cullen’s secretary, to testify, Kevin realizes she is lying to give Cullen a false alibi. He tells Milton he thinks Cullen is guilty. Milton offers to back him anyway. Kevin proceeds, wins the acquittal on Black’s perjured testimony, and Cullen walks free.
Meanwhile Eddie Barzoon, the firm’s managing partner, finds Kevin’s name on the firm’s charter and thinks Kevin wants his job. Barzoon threatens to go to the United States Attorney’s office. He is beaten to death in Central Park.
| Chapter | What happens |
|---|---|
| Gainesville | Kevin wins for Gettys |
| Manhattan | Milton hires Kevin |
| Cullen trial | Acquittal on false testimony |
| Central Park | Barzoon is killed |
Pacino, and the Weight of the Ending
Pacino had turned down the Devil three times before this, calling the character clichéd. He suggested Robert Redford and Sean Connery instead. To prepare, he watched The Devil and Daniel Webster (1941), studied Walter Huston’s Mr. Scratch, and read Dante’s Inferno and Paradise Lost. The allusions are not decoration — Milton is named for the author of Paradise Lost, and the film leans on Faust throughout.
Reeves took this over Speed 2, walking away from a promised $11 million, and took a pay cut so the producers could meet Pacino’s salary. That is a real commitment to a movie that does not fully reward it.
The Devil’s Advocate runs 144 minutes. It grossed $153 million, won the Saturn Award for Best Horror Film, and drew mixed reviews.
Here is the thing. The premise is sharp, and the first act proves it. A lawyer who wins for a child molester and never breaks stride is a better horror engine than any demon. Hackford knows this, then buries it. The back half gets loud, the visions get literal, and the film starts explaining what it already showed. Pacino is having a good time. The movie around him keeps interrupting.
The Devil’s Advocate is worth watching for the idea and for Theron, who is stranded and still memorable. It is a 6 of 10 — a smart setup that trusts its own metaphor less and less as it goes.
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