The Devil's Advocate

Taylor Hackford’s film follows Kevin Lomax, a Florida lawyer who has never lost a case, into a big New York firm. It comes from Andrew Neiderman’s 1990 novel but replaces the ending: in the book Kevin ends up in prison, where Milton goes on using his legal skill. The film turns it into a premonition and lets Kevin walk. Joel Schumacher had developed it with Brad Pitt before Hackford took over. Al Pacino refused the part more than once, and Keanu Reeves cut several million from his fee and asked that it go to him. Cullen’s apartment was shot in the Trump Tower penthouse. Its most concrete legacy is a lawsuit. Sculptor Frederick Hart and Washington National Cathedral argued that the writhing relief on Milton’s wall copied his Ex Nihilo; a judge found infringement likely and Warner settled in February 1998. The relief is on screen for twenty minutes. Later releases edited those scenes and shipped tapes got disclaimer stickers, so the wall you see now is not the one cinemas showed. A good fit if you accept that most of its 144 minutes sit in courtrooms and dinner parties before the supernatural surfaces. Not for anyone expecting the fear to land on the lead: the worst of it happens to his wife, whom nobody believes.