THE COUNSELOR - Review

The Counselor

Crime Thriller, 2013
1 hour, 54 minutes
Written by Cormac McCarthy
Directed by Ridley Scott
Rated R for "graphic violence, some grisly images, strong sexual content and language"

Starring
Michael Fassbender
Penelope Cruz
Javier Bardem
Brad Pitt
Cameron Diaz

"You may think there are things that these people are simply incapable of... there are not."

Well, I was really excited for The Counselor to come out. Then I saw the reviews for it. Only 30% of audiences liked it on rottentomatoes.com... but I'm not going to lie, I actually enjoyed myself. There are a ton of issues, but I found The Counselor to be fairly entertaining.
There are two things that The Counselor does right: acting and dialogue. The cast is pretty solid overall, especially Javier Bardem and Michael Fassbender. While the characters might be somewhat generic, neither one overdoes it. They both feel real and three-dimensional, at least for the most part. Some of the side characters like Brad Pitt and Penelope Cruz, are fine, even if their characters don't do much. Brad Pitt is basically the same guy he is in every movie and Cruz is just sexy as hell... like in everything she's in. McCarthy's dialogue is exceptionally well written and well executed. It's cohesive with the story and is ultimately one of the highlights of the movie. There's also one particular scene at the end, which does so little, but has a huge impact, big enough that we can recognize exactly what's happened without even needing to see it. You'll know what I'm talking about if you see the movie.
Unfortunately, almost everything else falls flat. The story itself has potential, but the dramatic beats seem almost out of order. There's a reveal that comes in relatively quickly that would have made for an awesome twist ending. There's some stuff that's hardly explained, but then we're just supposed to go along with it and the rest of the story revolves around these decisions. The story actually has a ton of potential, but it's just not there.
The second major thing is Cameron Diaz. She was so awful in this movie it was almost painful. The only good scene is when she fucks a car. I'm just going to say that again, she fucks a car. That's actually one of the best parts of the movie. But overall, her performance comes off as kind of like that one girl you went to high school with who doesn't realize that her dream to become an actress is really just delusions of wanting to be famous and she always just comes off phonier than Holden-fucking-Caulfield.
Except when she fucks that car.
So basically, The Counselor feels like a failed Cormac McCarthy experiment. Apparently, the dude is a cinephile and has written unpublished screenplays in the past, but he really wanted to make this one... I dunno. For a guy who doesn't like quotation marks in his books, I'm just glad that he wrote something that was at least entertaining. Because the movie does do exactly that. Even if it is a bit of a mess, I was still compelled until the end, even if the story is wobbly as hell. The trailer may make it look like a follow up to No Country for Old Men or something of that nature, but it's not. It's just a failed experiment.
But I guess I was entertained... so fuck it.

6/10