Review of The Counselor (2013) by Dierregi — 30 Nov 2014

The movie opens with a sex scene which is simultaneously excessive and boring. The Cruz character, named Laura, asks to be pleasured “down there” and the Fassbinder character, the nameless Counselor, obviously obliges.

Follows a series of disjointed and disconnected scenes, to introduce the other main players: Reiner, a Mexican drug trafficker with a bad haircut; Malkina, a “femme fatale” with a weird name and attitude and Westray, a guy who knows other guys.

All these people are played by top of the crop actors, directed by Ridley Scott, with a screen play by Cormac MCCarthy and yet the final result is an overlong, bloated, boring movie.

The plot involves a vague, messy drug deal and an even vaguer involvement of the Counselor. As everybody who watched Breaking Bad knows, Mexican drug lords get very upset when somebody messes with their drugs, so rightful revenge ensues.

Unfortunately, in this case the revenge is not fair and the Mexican guys should know. In one of many weird scenes, we see a main player spying a conversation between the Counselor and Reiner, during which it is spelled out that the Counselor is innocent. And yet the ax will fall on him and on his beloved Laura.

The violence is disturbing but predictable. When Reiner and the Counselor coolly discus about decapitation devices, you can be sure that someone will be decapitated before the end credits. The same when they talk about snuff movies….

Cameron Diaz playing femme fatale Malkina is especially disturbing. Sporting appropriate sprayed-on clothes and super high-heels, with huge sculpted cheekbones, she is supposed to convey fear and mystery. But I just found her cheekbones too distracting.