A tale set in medieval France, The Advocate is the story of a lawyer who tired of the decadence of Paris longs for a simpler life Colin Firth heads for a most rural area where he figures the peasant folk to be a kindler, gentler lot than what he left in the Isle De France.
What he finds is a brutal and ignorant lot of people ruled by a cynical local lord played by Nicol Williamson who manipulates the populace for his own benefit. Williamson is not someone from an old and titled family, he's a harbinger of what was to come, a businessman who for services rendered got a title. Now that he's rich and with a title, he and his family can live a hedonistic lifestyle and they indulge themselves to the fullest. Williamson's son Justin Chadwick has all the vices and invents a few of his own.
Among the beliefs these folks have is that animals have souls, souls because of their simplicity can be readily possessed by Satan and his minions. They face trial for offenses as one poor goat does at the beginning with a man who sodomized him. Only a testament to the goat's good moral character saves him from Judge Michael Gough hanging him with the man who did him wrong.
As a defense advocate Firth gets one case to defend a pig owned by a family of gypsies. I will not go further except to say that Firth is quite disillusioned by everyone in what he thought was some rural idyll.
The film has a lot of nudity in it. Quite frankly it needed it to perk up the interest. The Advocate for the most part is one crashingly dull film and I think the players knew it. Even Donald Pleasence who usually can spark a film doesn't deliver at all. No doubt Pleasence was kept in strict directorial check, a pity.
Medieval France is recreated quite well, too bad the story just wasn't more interesting.
What he finds is a brutal and ignorant lot of people ruled by a cynical local lord played by Nicol Williamson who manipulates the populace for his own benefit. Williamson is not someone from an old and titled family, he's a harbinger of what was to come, a businessman who for services rendered got a title. Now that he's rich and with a title, he and his family can live a hedonistic lifestyle and they indulge themselves to the fullest. Williamson's son Justin Chadwick has all the vices and invents a few of his own.
Among the beliefs these folks have is that animals have souls, souls because of their simplicity can be readily possessed by Satan and his minions. They face trial for offenses as one poor goat does at the beginning with a man who sodomized him. Only a testament to the goat's good moral character saves him from Judge Michael Gough hanging him with the man who did him wrong.
As a defense advocate Firth gets one case to defend a pig owned by a family of gypsies. I will not go further except to say that Firth is quite disillusioned by everyone in what he thought was some rural idyll.
The film has a lot of nudity in it. Quite frankly it needed it to perk up the interest. The Advocate for the most part is one crashingly dull film and I think the players knew it. Even Donald Pleasence who usually can spark a film doesn't deliver at all. No doubt Pleasence was kept in strict directorial check, a pity.
Medieval France is recreated quite well, too bad the story just wasn't more interesting.