The Devil's Advocate

The movie caught my eye, and I was thinking, the book's gotta be better. Right? More often than not, a book trumps a movie hands-down, though some adaptations have turned out to be decent efforts. This book is from the same man who ghostwrites the V.C. Andrews novels (and the books he writes under her name are just god-awful) but I figured that if someone wanted to make a movie from this book, then the book had to be good... right? Right???

NO! The screenplay is actually better than the book! I could see echoes of Neiderman's lame "VCA-esque" writing in here especially with the bland dialogue. Some parts were all right, but overall the book fell rather flat and it left me surprised at how such a good (if somewhat disturbing) movie could show more have been greenlighted from this book. It is definitely better than a one-star, but I just couldn't bring myself to give it anything higher than two stars. show less

Wow.

I don't think I have ever experienced such a stark difference between book and movie.

I've watched The Devi's Advocate so many times since its release (it was regularly featured on my college campus's in-house movie channel while I was there), but had never read the book. Having recently rewatched the movie on Netflix, I got the urge to finally pick up the book and give it a read. While the bare bones of the story are similar between the two, the protagonist is named Kevin, and the antagonist is John Milton, that is were the similarities end.

Basically, book is a very basic outline of what the movie would become. While some people clearly hold that against the book, and while I personally agree that the movie makes better use of the show more concept, the book is still very good indeed.

The book is much more low-key. John Milton and Associates is a small firm that none of Kevin's previous employers have heard of, his wife has zero misgivings about what is happening to her since moving to the apartment, there are less signs of the demonic amongst the associates and more of a Stepford feel, and the supernatural workings are much darker and creepier than what we see in the film. To me, they work more like two elements of a larger story. Kevin Taylor (book) and Kevin Lomax (movie) are more like two different characters who find themselves on John Milton's radar for similar reasons and are put to the ultimate test, much like Kevin Taylor's predecessor Richard Jaffe. The argument could easily be made that this is a constant pattern with John Milton, and that both the book and the movie work together to tell a larger, continuing story.

Quick read. Definitely one you don't want to put down until you know exactly how it's all going to work out. But, as I said, I do happen to prefer the movie. show less

This book is solid, but for once, the movie is way better. Actually the movie and the book could be considered two completely seperate things, as they really don't have anything in common. Still a decent read as a compliment to the movie.

Any film with Al Pacino in has got to be worth watching. Don't bother with this book though, which the film The Devil's Advocate was based on. Badly written, with loose ends all over the place. I'm amazed it got published, and even more amazed that a good film came out of it!

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