Scary ‘Devil’s Advocate’ overcomes contrived plot

“The Devil’s Advocate”

Directed by Taylor Hackford. Written by Jonathan Lemkin and Tony Gilroy. Running time: 138 minutes. Rated R (for violence, language, nudity and adult content). Currently playing at Hoyt’s Cinema.

Seething with rot and greed, choked with souls destined to burn in eternal damnation, New York City has always writhed on film as the ultimate lure of power for those who enter. It is a complicated world of underworlds that have been depicted time and again as an aphrodisiac for the overly ambitious.

In Taylor Hackford’s “The Devil’s Advocate,” which is being sold as “The Firm” meets “Rosemary’s Baby,” the core of the Big Apple’s heart may beat within the chest of Satan, but the blood that keeps it pumping comes from the veins of unscrupulous lawyers.

The film opens with the pained face — and trembling bottom lip — of actress Heather Matarazzo, who has forged a successful career by playing characters whose lives are sheer hell. First seen as the much misunderstood and picked-upon Dawn Wiener in Todd Solondz’ wonderfully dark film “Welcome to the Dollhouse,” here she plays a student sexually molested by her teacher, a man represented by small-time ace attorney Kevin Lomax (Keanu Reeves).

Fresh-faced and wholesomely handsome, Lomax has never lost a case and, in spite of his strict religious upbringing, is certainly not above selling out. Indeed, when he discovers that his client is guilty of the molestation, he nevertheless pushes forward with a convincing argument that wows the jurors and earns him his 64th consecutive win.

What Lomax doesn’t know is that members of a powerful New York law firm have taken an interest in him, and soon arrive in Lomax’s hometown of Gainesville, Fla., to invite him and his wife, Mary Anne (Charlize Theron), to New York. Once there, Lomax meets with John Milton (Al Pacino), the firm’s charismatic owner (not the deceased poet, though he is intentionally named after him), who predictably offers the Lomaxes a package they cannot refuse: an elegant, sprawling apartment on Fifth Avenue; sudden entrance into a coveted society; and more money than they possibly could have dreamed.

Unfortunately for the Lomaxes, the money, power and position Milton offers comes with a hefty price tag — first their marriage, then their lives and finally their souls.

Adapted from a novel by Andrew Neiderman, the first third of “The Devil’s Advocate” suffers from a plot so slickly contrived, it stretches our patience with its rampant, connect-the-dot push to get the Lomaxes into New York. Bear with it — eventually the film hits its groove and snakes along rather nicely with superb effects that never go for the gross-out. Indeed, director Hackford has learned well from the directors of “The Exorcist” and “Rosemary’s Baby.” He knows that only by using his effects sparingly, cunningly, can an atmosphere of true horror be created.

With solid performances from Pacino and, to a lesser degree, from Reeves, “The Devil’s Advocate” is better than Wes Craven’s tiring new slasher, “I Saw What You Did Last Summer,” and should be seen, for added fun, in the company of a lawyer. You will find one in the phone book at the law firm of Satan & Satan.

Grade: B

Video of the Week

“Shallow Grave”

Directed by Danny Boyle. Running time: 93 minutes. Rated R (for language, violence, brief nudity and adult content).

When three Scottish roommates go looking for a fourth to fill their Glasgow flat, they find Hugo (Keith Allen), who unexpectedly changes the course of their lives when he dies of an overdose and leaves in his wake a suitcase filled with drug money belonging to some dangerous dealers.

In a scene inspired by Henry Wallis’ painting “The Death of Chatterton,” Hugo is found in bed, one rigid arm stretched behind him to the floor, his pale face a ghostly frieze twisted in the throes of death. Wallis’ 1856 painting is kinder to its subject than director Boyle is to his. In Wallis’ painting, the manic depressive poet Chatterton looks almost peaceful in death, while Boyle’s Hugo — eyes wide open and fixed, stony blue lips parted in final breath — looks as though death was a punishment deserved.

The differences are intentional. “Shallow Grave” deals with people so evil, director Boyle delights in tormenting them. His film, which echoes Scott Smith’s excellent novel, “A Simple Plan,” follows the trio as their own “simple” plan to keep the money goes horribly awry. With Kerry Fox, Christopher Eccleston, and current hot property Ewan McGregor as the remaining roommates who gradually turn against one another, this film may not offer a single likable character, but it has real style, black humor and a surprise ending, qualities that make it worth renting.

Grade: B+

Christopher Smith, a writer and critic who lives in Brewer, reviews films each Monday in the NEWS.