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.

This is known as "The Advocate" to most people outside England, where this film was made. It's no surprise the ultra-liberal BBC financially backed this film.

Boy, it seems European filmmakers hate Catholics more than the North American ones, at least some of the European movies I've seen. This movie is a prime example of British garbage. Hollywood doesn't monopolize the market when it comes to sleaze, believe me.

This story is the supposed expose of the Fifteenth Century Church where church officials are all not only corrupted but perverted. Nudity is no big deal in films, not since the '60s, but this film also gives us tales of men having sex with animals. This is sick stuff.

If you are interested in medieval times, and in a realistic way, not with CGI effects as many American or Russian features from the last decades give us, in the Hollywood manner; if you search for some kind of Eric Rohmer(s films like features, or even a movie which makes you think about John Huston's A WALK WITH LOVE AND DEATH, this film is definitely for you. A pretty interesting and unusual atmosphere which describes the middle age customs and habits, so weird and offbeat for people of modern times. But of course most of audiences won't be interested in this movie. A very minimalist way of story telling but I love this. The topic about true events that really happened, the trial of a pig accused to have killed a little boy and more, eaten him on Easter Friday - a day where it is forbidden to eat flesh - you have to see it to believe it. I don't regret to have seen it. really.