Review of The Counselor (2013) by Nick O — 19 Feb 2014

The gamble movies like "Killing Them Softly", "Only God Forgives" or "The Counselor" take -- and why, in turn, they're rarely ever universally loved -- is that instead of idolizing the glitz and glamour of the criminal underworld they pull the rug out from under it, advertise it as one thing when it's actually something completely different. The difficulty in writing about movies like this are, I don't want to sound above the uproar, or like I'm the sponsor of reason. I understand why "The Counselor" won't click with people, and why it already hasn't. But in time, movies like "Killing", "OGF" or this, they'll find their audience. Maybe not now, but over time, at least I hope. It's just that in the risk in targeting mass appeal for something THIS bleak, all is lost. See; how awful do I sound right now.

The first thing you notice about "The Counselor" -- novelist Cormac McCarthy's first official foray into screenwriting -- is that it doesn't SOUND like any other film. In the TV world I would compare it to something like "Deadwood", where every word is meaningful, precise and otherworldly. You don't pick up on all of it on a first viewing, or maybe any viewing; I would love to actually sit down and read the full transcript of this. The second thing you notice is actually the first image "The Counselor" opens on -- a sport bike riding like hell past a highway sign that reads "Ciudad Juarez" and into one that reads "El Paso, Texas". Yeah, we're dealing with grey zones. Doesn't take a rocket scientist.

Steven Soderbergh examined the shittiness of the drug trade in what I personally think remains his best film, "Traffic". But "The Counselor" tops it in terms of shear upset. There's something to be said in the way it never once shows its skeevy lawyer-with-no-name -- the "counselor" of the title (Michael Fassbender) -- or really anyone for that matter living up their lives on high (pun intended.) "The Counselor" is a cautionary tale in the Shakespearean sense: don't play games you can't win. Two moments bookmark early and final scenes of "The Counselor": that of the titular protagonist walking calmly and coolly through a party being thrown by Reiner (Javier Bardem) -- a kingpin with a taste for exotic hair and Lady Macbeth qualities in his women (Cameron Diaz's Malkina) -- and later, a shot of the counselor -- drunk, unkempt and alone in a foreign land of similar tones -- walking through a rowdy vigil for a young girl whose life was lost in a crossfire.

I highlight this parallel in particular because, outside of being symbolic of the film as a whole, it's so subtle I don't know if I'm maybe reading too much into it. Which is again, representative of "The Counselor" itself: its surface is shiny, but you better believe McCarthy leaves everyone's hands tied and the audience dry. Scott's film is also impeccably cast. Fassbender, in his second collaboration with Scott after last year's "Prometheus", exudes such an appearance of suave, magnetic collect you don't doubt something's got to give under the skin, be it beauty or pain.

Scott works best when he has solid writing behind him, and McCarthy's script is the best non-sci-fi endeavor he's laid hands on since the Oscar-winning "Thelma & Louise". "The Counselor" will naturally be divisive. Scott knows how to tune out unhappy critics at this point, but I hope it doesn't discourage McCarthy from returning to the screen again. In an industry that shoots down all the pretty horses, that's no country for bold men, "The Counselor" has something you hear all too rarely crash on through the clatter of the Hollywood machine: a voice. (82/100).