Review of The Counselor (2013) by Jillyr — 01 Feb 2014

This is a dishonest film. It is not what it says on the tin. From the trailer, cast, director, synopsis etc you are probably expecting a high octane, on the edge of your seat thriller, with a strong plot line and characters you can love or hate.

Sorry but it does not give that at all. This simply is a self-indulgent film (self-indulgent by the writer), with actors badly delivering unintelligible lines of philosophic dialogue with neither rhyme nor reason as to how they got there and what their motives are.

This is the sort of thing you would expect to have to sit through, not too willingly, when you have a very good friend who is taking screenplay classes and has to do an obscure showcase. Most students, if not all, refrain from applying a Hollywood budget, getting Ridley Scott to direct and having Brad Pitt et al in these showcases though and maybe McCarthy should have thought twice about having his screenplay debut in such a fashion and kept to the more traditional avenue of a few friends in a small theatre.

I am sure his friends would have said nice things about it but I can't think of one.