Directed by:
Ridley ScottScreenplay:
Cormac McCarthyCinematography:
Dariusz WolskiComposer:
Daniel PembertonCast:
Michael Fassbender, Penélope Cruz, Cameron Diaz, Javier Bardem, Brad Pitt, Bruno Ganz, Rosie Perez, Edgar Ramirez, Natalie Dormer, Dean Norris, Goran Visnjic (more)VOD (3)
Plots(1)
The Counselor stars Michael Fassbender as the title character, a slick lawyer who is madly in love with Laura (Penelope Cruz). He asks her to marry him, and she agrees, though she is unaware that serious financial troubles have prompted him to fund a drug deal with a shady but established middle man (Brad Pitt), that could bring in millions. Part of the counselor's financial troubles stem from the fact that he's investing in a club being opened by his best friend Reiner (Javier Bardem), a hedonist and occasional client who has attained his wealth by any means necessary, and likes to keep his wife (Cameron Diaz) covered in all the accoutrements the wealthy enjoy. However, when the drug deal starts to go wrong, the counselor finds himself unprepared to deal with the fallout, and soon he's trying to protect his bride-to-be as well as himself from the wrath of a drug cartel that has no qualms about exacting revenge. (official distributor synopsis)
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Reviews (12)
A very tough and uncompromising film full of references, philosophy, life wisdom and truths, going against any audience trends, expecting a high level of intellect and the ability to read between the lines. Ambiguous, unclassifiable, yet sometimes hypnotic and captivating. For someone without insights in life, a film about nothing. For the rest, a strong experience. Saw the extended version.
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As much as I like the work of Ridley Scott (a lot) and Cormac McCarthy (a lot), I have to say that The Counselor impressed me primarily as an extremely pretentious film that (in roughly the following order) entertains, bores, bores, entertains, bores, bores, bores, bores. This makes me sad. It cannot be said that McCarthy wrote anything particularly badly, that Scott filmed anything badly, or that any of the actors acted badly. But I would have been much happier if McCarthy had written a book instead of a screenplay, in which I could read his dialogues in peace, return to them and think about them. Because when they come at me in such a powerful and pounding stream as is the case with this film, they don't make me feel good at all. And that's a shame. Now I have no choice but to buy the book version of the script (which I would have bought anyway), read it, and then give the film another chance. Probably.
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With this film, I had to watch the key scenes over again to catch on and make all the motivations, behind-the-scenes games, and alliances click for me. The key moments were not the shootouts or executions of the film characters, but the dialogues. Carefully crafted and sophisticated dialogues, like when I eagerly played the conversation between the lawyer and the cartel boss three times to savor the subtle play of a predator toying with its prey. The Counselor was made for a specific layer of educated and tuned-in viewers, definitely not a film for a broad audience, and I wouldn't hesitate to label it a cult film in the original sense of the word - not as a commercially successful film, but rather a film that captivates a small group of connoisseurs. While Scott's Prometheus was downright dumb, The Counselor is a smart film. It's smart to the point of being annoying and unsympathetic. It's like a cross between No Country for Old Men and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. It shares the same screenwriter and deals with the world of drug cartels and underworld characters, and it also has a narrative style that is difficult for the viewer to digest. The absence of characters to root for, for example, doesn't help. The only positive character who accidentally enters the world of dirty dealings is mercilessly crushed by events, and the rest of the twisted characters are simply competing to see how far they can go in their depravity. The screenwriter doses out information in small bits and keeps much to himself; you simply have to infer and process things where you would prefer to just consume. In any case, the final form of the film is much more influenced by Cormac McCarthy than Ridley Scott. I do have a few criticisms, for example, that the casting of the stereotypical actress Cameron Diaz wasn't reasonable, although thanks to the director's guidance, it didn't bother me too much. Scott knew what she was capable of as an actress and didn't burden her. Her sexual performance, which may be the icing on the cake for some viewers, felt unnecessary and cheap to me, and in a few other scenes, the crew wanted to play a little bit at being Tarantino. But from the originally intended four stars, I give it five because I won't hesitate to help a film that is so severely underrated. Overall impression: 90%.
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Brad Pitt plays a bastard, Michael Fassbender plays a bastard, Javier Bardem is both a pervert and a bastard. Penelope Cruz is good, especially in the beginning, but on the other hand she is not there that much. Cameron Diaz plays such a bitch that it made me sick. Nevertheless, all the acting performances are great, I just don’t really know who to focus on in order for the movie to appear at least a little bit likeable. This way it is Ridley Scott’s most unpleasant movie for me, and it doesn’t matter that it has an interesting story when I’m not able to enjoy it with these actors.
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I will not stoop to commenting on the senility of Ridley Scott, because there are plenty of users aping similar big-mouthed statements from foreign reviews about last year's Prometheus. That said, it is still true that I am quite disappointed. Not that Ridley forgot how to direct – but that he is simply unrecognizable in The Counselor. It is all just Cormac McCarthy's self-absorbed screenplay, materialized into lazily rolling dialogues, framed by a pretty good side plot and very inconsistently cast. While Michael Fassbender and Brad Pitt carry everything, Cameron Diaz turns out to be a casting misstep unlike any I can remember. Every gesture or word feels forced and wooden, making all the smaller positives (the soundtrack, the action flashes) almost forgotten. Given the creative team, I can't believe I'm stooping so low, but when even I, who easily let myself be captivated by the story, can see through the random fragments to the very end, something is wrong.
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