{"id":2871,"date":"2013-11-14T15:23:55","date_gmt":"2013-11-14T15:23:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmgaze.com\/blog\/?p=2871"},"modified":"2013-11-14T15:34:14","modified_gmt":"2013-11-14T15:34:14","slug":"the-counsellor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmgaze.com\/blog\/action\/the-counsellor\/","title":{"rendered":"The Counsellor ***"},"content":{"rendered":"

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It\u2019s hard to fathom the big picture of the anticipated Ridley Scott-Cormac McCarthy collaboration, The Counsellor, apart from the obvious that greed is bad news, as is being embroiled in the drugs trade at any level. As a thriller, it\u2019s stuffed with well-intentioned but wordy statements uttered by a crowd-pulling cast looking rather grand, including Michael Fassbender, Brad Pitt, Javier Bardem, Cameron Diaz and Pen\u00e9lope Cruz, in rather flash places (on the whole). However, the character ambiguity is utterly frustrating. Still, The Counsellor will be remembered for one car fetish scene, in particular.<\/p>\n

The Counsellor (Fassbender), soon to be married to Laura (Cruz), gets more and more involved in the dangerous world of drug trafficking, even though he is warned about the fatal consequences by other key players.<\/p>\n

This brief synopsis again highlights the ambiguity of the whole affair: None of the characters are what they seem, even the greedy Counsellor. We have no idea what makes the lawyer tick, except his woman and his money, and no gauge as to where our protagonist has come from to be in the mess he\u2019s in now. This is both brilliantly realised and the film\u2019s Achilles heel. Fassbender does the best he can as a broke man listening to one piece of advice \u2013\u00a0or muttering \u2013 after another. The fact remains that all the characters feel closed off, with no amount of monologues helping proceedings to unlock their personalities. The only one vaguely \u2018open\u2019 to interpretation is Bardem\u2019s flamboyant drugs courier and businessman Reiner, with the Spaniard a tonic to watch.<\/p>\n

Diaz as the mirror-taloned Malkina \u2013 note a new fashion craze after this \u2013 starts off rather promising and alluringly dangerous in a refreshing femme fatale role for the bubbly actress. However, as baffling as Malkina\u2019s true identity actually is, this character begins playing to type by the end and we are still none-the-wiser. Diaz is nevertheless memorable as the Grace Jones-lookalike and THAT car scene will forever associate Diaz\u2019s lady parts to a catfish, further cementing this as a milestone role for the actress.<\/p>\n

That said the rest of the film is heavy on style with a strong odour of sexuality, perforated by moments of evil bloody-mindedness and gruesomeness. In all fairness, once you\u2019ve been overstuffed on these superficialities, The Counsellor probably needs a second viewing to grab anything of significance to what is said in novelist McCarthy\u2019s rather clunky script \u2013 if you have the patience (and the funds). The Coen Brothers\u2019 scriptwriting expertise is sadly missed here after adapting McCarthy\u2019s No Country For Old Men.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s the problem; in trying to be too worthy and mysterious, in painting a menacing, faceless picture of the drugs trade and its collaborators, The Counsellor grabs then loses our attention. Maybe that\u2019s best, in that there is detail to be mulled over but it\u2019s mainly a smokescreen for what seems to be a rather lacking plot, however much you want it to be more.<\/p>\n

3\/5 stars<\/strong><\/p>\n

By @FilmGazer<\/p>\n

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