The Advocate

REVIEW
Writer-director Megahey has taken what has to be a virtually unknown medieval law and with it fashioned a scintillating black comedy masquerading as a murder mystery. Firth plays a 15th-century Parisian lawyer who escapes the rigors and hardships of the city for a simpler life in the country. But a peaceful landscape and gentle countryfolk are not what he finds when he immediately becomes embroiled in the murder trial of a young boy -- and his defendant is a pig! As Firth tries to uncover the facts, he comes face to face with political corruption, religious bureaucracy and a bevy of beautiful women all trying to bed him. The situation is ripe with satiric possibilities, and Megahey has wondrously exploited them with a light touch and marvelous wit.