Still watching vaguely Halloweeny movies, am I? That comes of neglecting to rearrange my queue in time. It's also a movie I initially marked "Not interested," probably because I wanted to make time for something else, not because I expected to dislike it. Was it worth adding? I think so, but you'll notice that's hardly a strong answer.
Two years before Keanu played a super pseudo-messiah in The Matrix and three years after his turn as a heroic cop in Speed, he starred as law-abiding yet rather corrupt lawyer Kevin Lomax in DA (heh, appropriate abbreviation). Of course, the real draw for viewers must be Al Pacino as suspiciously named CEO John Milton, who takes a special interest in Lomax and his nigh inexplicably perfect track record. I hardly call it a spoiler that Milton creates steam by sticking his finger in holy water; the posters alone give a big hint to his identity, even if it takes Lomax most of the 2 hours and 24 minutes to catch on.
I've always taken interest in depictions of God, the devil, and their respective domains. Milton may not bring anything entirely new to my perceptions, but he couldn't help intriguing me. He puts on a friendly air that combines casual and genteel for the most part, eloquent in multiple languages, albeit with a fair amount of swearing. He gets normally pious souls to sin without hindering their free will. Sometimes he even encourages Lomax to do the right thing, presumably with an educated guess that Lomax won't anyway. When he finally opens up about who he is and how he sees God and other things, the speech is about worthy of his adopted namesake (keeping in mind that he's heavily biased and prone to dishonesty).
If you think parts of the setup sound potentially funny, don't be fooled. It gets classified as thriller first and drama second, and I find it more upsetting than scary. Toward the beginning, for example, Lomax defends a teacher charged with sexual molestation by attacking the character of the tearful girl who testifies against him. I largely averted my eyes during that scene, which seems odd as there was nothing offensive to see, but I wanted to distance myself from the event somehow without missing potentially important dialog.
The main focus, however, is on what Lomax's burgeoning career does to his wife, played by Charlize Theron. At first she welcomes the extra income, but he spends too much time at work (and around temptation to adultery), leaving her little to do besides make decisions for styling her new home and herself. Her stress borders on melodramatic, until she starts seeing thru the veneer of Milton's female associates who keep her company. By the second half, when her troubles turn to earnest dangers, I truly felt sorry for her.
The film doesn't exactly go for constantly disturbing, just as the swearing falls short of The Wolf of Wall Street's level. This might have the effect of exacerbating the disturbing moments when they do come. And those moments can be on par with some of the viler horror movies I've seen. (It also bothers me that we get full frontal nudity for exactly one gender. Typical Hollywood double standard.)
I won't detail the ending, but the resolution rubs me the wrong way. It shouldn't take a generally sinful act to thwart the devil's plans. At least what happens afterward is pretty refreshing, without turning too happy.
Ultimately, my ambivalence about DA amounts to this: The filmmakers did their jobs well (even Keanu wasn't miscast), but it's hard to love the results. Perhaps I prefer my hellish cinematic ventures with a little more heaven.
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