100 Movie Challenge 2014 - # 107: The Counselor

Director: Ridley Scott

Genre: Crime/ Thriller/ Drama

Runtime: 118 minutes

Year: 2013

Starring: Michael Fassbender, Penélope Cruz, Javier Bardem, Cameron Diaz, Brad Pitt

Description: A rich and successful lawyer, the Counselor (Michael Fassbender), is about to get married to his fiancée (Penélope Cruz) but soon becomes entangled in a complex drug plot with a middle-man known as Westray (Brad Pitt). The plan ends up taking a horrible twist and he must protect himself and his soon to be bride as the truth of the drug business is uncovered and targets are eliminated.

Review: With “The Counselor”, writer Cormac McCarthy delivers his first film scenario. The author is known for movie adaptations of his novels “No Country for Old Men” and “The Road”. His work seems to lend itself perfectly for the big screen, but it doesn’t necessary lead to success. That’s what is proved with “The Counselor”.

The movie takes us to the dark world of drug trafficking between Mexico and the United States. A business filled with greed and decadence and a world that’s hard to escape from. Counselor experiences that himself, when he chooses money over honor. He wants to secure his future with his fiancé Laura, so he decides to get involved. His eccentric business partners Reiner and Westray make a deal, that could eventually get them 20 million dollars. Off course nothing goes according to plan.

The failure of the plan is very predictable. The biggest problem is the dialogue. Every action, plot twist and progression happens during a dialogue. It gets a bit unilateral, but also results in unsurprising progression. Strangely enough sex is a big theme in many of the conversations, which also gives us a weird scene of Cameron Diaz on a windshield. Because of all this, the character’s motives are never really clear. It makes everything very incoherent. This might work in a novel, but the movie needs more than the spoken word.

Director Ridley Scott tries to put movement in the stiff scenes, and he succeeds. The montage is great and the trouble at the borders is clearly present. The acting is fine. Javier Bardem, with again a very weird look, is most enjoyable. Because “The Counselor” is so focused on dialogue, the conclusion of this film never sticks. It’s not all bad, but “The Counselor” could have been a lot better. One missed shot.

Rating: 2/ 5