The Counselor (2013)

The Counselor: Directed by Ridley Scott. With Michael Fassbender, Penélope Cruz, Cameron Diaz, Javier Bardem. A lawyer finds himself in over his head when he gets involved in drug trafficking.

“When I first heard about this film and its pedigreed credentials: Director Ridley Scott, Starring Michael Fassbender, Javier Bardem, Penelope Cruz, Cameron Diaz and Brad Pitt, I was excited to see it. However, because of the very poor reviews and box office performance Stateside, I have tempered my expectations before I went to see it. And so should you.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eu0026quot;The Counseloru0026quot; refers to the nameless character played by Michael Fassbender. He appears to be a very successful lawyer, happily engaged to a gorgeous, church-going girl (Penelope Cruz). However, for some reason this film never really completely discloses, he still felt the need to get himself involved with a Mexican drug cartel for additional cash, peppered with colorful characters, like the wild-haired Reiner (Javier Bardem), his slinky girlfriend Malkina (Cameron Diaz) and the urban cowboy Westray (Brad Pitt). Will the Counselor get away with both the girl and cash?u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eWhen I saw in the opening credits that the script was by Cormac McCarthy, who was responsible for u0026quot;No Country for Old Menu0026quot; (which I did not exactly like), I braced myself for one puzzling and boring ride.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eHowever, it was not exactly all boring after all. There were those pockets of incredible tension and violence involving necks which you will not soon forget. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eMichael Fassbender was okay as the titular Counselor, but there was nothing about his character which was fully-explored. He is obviously greedy enough to risk everything he had to get himself involved in nefarious criminal activities, but we do not see why. So we end up not caring at all about him. We actually see other characters counsel him, than him counseling others.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eCameron Diazu0026#39;s femme fatale character Malkina was unexpectedly well- developed. She is certainly no dumb blond bimbo here. Her scenes though were the most perplexing as to where she was coming from. She has a scene on the windshield of a luxury car that was as head-scratching as it was sensually acrobatic.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eJavier Bardem is really very comfortable playing these cool sinister types. Penelope Cruz is too good to be true. I expected more out of their characters than what ended up in the final edit we saw, which was disappointing.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI found the character of Brad Pitt the most interesting one of all. Every time Westray was on the screen, the story perks up and even the long conversations he has with the Counselor actually made sense. Too bad Pitt was only in about a third of the film or less.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eu0026quot;The Counseloru0026quot; comes across as a slick action-filled crime caper film at first glance. However as you watch it, you will realize that it was actually mostly long-winded, unrealistically philosophical conversations and monologues from the most unlikely of characters. I think the main problem is the turgid and generally lifeless script which the talents of the director nor the actors could save.”