The Counselor | Ridley Scott | October 25, 2013
On paper, everything about The Counselor should have worked. A film directed by the diverse Ridley Scott with a script written by the great American author and now screenwriter, Cormac McCarthy. A too good to be true cast featuring Michael Fassbender, Penélope Cruz, Cameron Diaz, Javier Bardem, and Brad Pitt. All of this made me think that anything was possible for The Counselor. This ended up being true, as it wasn’t quite the film that I hoped it would be.
The film revolves around a man known only as “the Counselor” (Michael Fassbender) who is about to engage in a drug deal involving quite a bit of cocaine. He makes a more than modest living as a counselor, but it’s not quite enough for him as he wants to make sure he can provide a lavish lifestyle for his soon to be wife, Laura (Penélope Cruz). Only he doesn’t quite think it through, even though Reiner (Javier Bardem) warns him about the tricky business that he wants to engage. Westray (Brad Pitt) helps The Counselor set up the deal. He tells him that he could be taking in quite a profit if all went right, but he should also prepare for the worst case scenario, which is always a possibility in this business.
One of the most interesting parts of The Counselor is Reiner’s girlfriend, Malkina (Cameron Diaz), who is mysteriously sexy and also chilling in her own ways. It’s a very different performance from Diaz than audiences are used to seeing, and although some people found her part to be on the brink of absurdity, I quite enjoyed it. She’s another layer to this world of pretty interesting characters. Ironically, the Counselor just may be the most boring character out of all of them.
That’s not a knock on Michael Fassbender, who is great, as always. It’s just that Diaz’s character along with Bardem & Pitt’s are just more dicey, interesting, players. They all have layers of mystery to them that the Counselor must try and peel away, along with us, before its too late for him. We’re with him on the ride.
Scott does give us a fair bit of cool shots and sequences, and the performance are all there. Unfortunately, all the madness gets lost in the script. McCarthy is no doubt one of the finer novelist of our time, but he still has some work to do with his screenplays. There is a lot of lengthy dialogue that boarders on rambling that thinks its smarter than it is. There are some interesting discussions at play, sure, but the film gets brought down by it , leaving the viewer feeling quite exhausted.
It’s often thrilling to see the kind of trouble that the Counselor gets himself into, entering a world of ruthless drug inspired crime that he had no business going into. He ignored the warning signs provided directly by Reiner and Westray, and more indirectly from Malkina. There’s quite a few memorable sequences such as when Cameron Diaz has “intercourse” with a car. Yes, you read that correctly. It’s just how you interpret or embrace moments like that, along with the mile long dialogue that often goes no where, that will decide how you feel about The Counselor.
This really should have been a much better movie than it is, as all the performances were solid and the direction was solid. Only it gets lost in itself and is quite uneven. Brad Pitt stole this film, and the film could have benefited from more screentime from him. Aside from his character, no one else quite drew me in the same way, and I never really cared for anyone else. That’s a problem, and it’s not one that got fixed, leaving The Counselor as quite a mixed bag. It’s not nearly as bad as people are saying, but it’s also definitely a disappointment.
Join the conversation