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THE COUNSELOR – The Review – We Are Movie Geeks

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THE COUNSELOR – The Review

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Those expecting a fun adventure with Brad Pitt and Cameron Diaz may be alarmed by how mean-spirited and unpleasant THE COUNSELOR is. Veteran director Ridley Scott and Pulitzer Prize winning author Cormac McCarthy (NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, THE ROAD) have joined forces for some Tex-Mex noir starring Michael Fassbender in the the titular role of a nameless attorney who lands himself and his expensive  fiancé (Penélope Cruz) in the middle of an ill-fated cocaine-running deal with Mexican drug lords. The Counselor’s initial investment in a drug shipment transported in a septic truck gets him in hot water when the load is hijacked and blame is placed on a decapitated courier he helped bail out of jail. With the exception of one desperate phone call, the drug lords themselves never take center screen in THE COUNSELOR, but there are plenty of foreboding references and blood-chilling discussions about the cartels favorite ways of dispatching those who get on their wrong side. Fassbender’s partners-in-crime are a pair of sleazy characters who serve to heighten the evil lurking on the deal’s supply side. Javier Bardem is Reiner, the counterpoint to the cultivated Counselor, a partied-out club owner with a pair of pet leopards and an abundance of loud shirts and hair-gel.   Rounding out the trio is a seasoned Brad Pitt, in full-on scruff mode as Westray, who primarily functions to remind Fassbender of the shit storm that is steadily developing around him. Then there are the women: Cruz and Cameron Diaz.  Except for ALL THE PRETTY HORSES, McCarthy has not historically written strong women characters, but in THE COUNSELOR he has created two extremely memorable ones. Cruz is the good girl and Diaz the very, very bad one. Both actresses are superb and could have easily switched roles, but Diaz as the villainess Malkina, gets the much juicier part here and has several over-the-top scenes including a wild one where she goes to confession for the first time, resulting in a panicked priest fleeing the confessional. Another has her having sexual relations with the windshield of Bardem’s Bentley and is about the only scene played for laughs in this otherwise grim film (and it made me hungry for catfish).

McCarthy’s original script for THE COUNSELOR is grim and nihilistic. It’s also talky, much more so than NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN. The first hour is almost all dialog, much of it cryptic philosophy about life and death, women and sex, and how the drug trade is a cruel, far-reaching business. There are some grisly murders and references to taboo chestnut “the snuff film”, but for the most part, these horrors happen off screen. There are a handful of on-screen deaths, one featuring a nasty auto-tightening garrote straight out of SAW. Each player is more dangerous than the next – the cartel is represented not by one character, but many scary, mostly silent ones who seem to be everywhere.  Once things with the Counselor start on a downward spiral, the movie is in danger of becoming repetitive. Nevertheless, the material never loses its hold on our attention and, thanks in part to Scott’s direction, THE COUNSELOR is completely engrossing. The Counselor himself is a classic tragic character. Why he gets involved in this mess is initially unclear. He is already wealthy, and is loved by an unbelievably beautiful woman. At the outset, he’s the least interesting person in the movie – not hard when you mingle with eccentrics like Bardem, Pitt, and Diaz. Step by step and scene by scene, the Counselor’s fate is sealed and although we know redemption for him is impossible, that doesn’t stop us from wishing for it.

4 of 5 Stars

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