Review of The Counselor (2013) by Thomas W — 12 Feb 2014

Although The Counselor isn't as awful as I assumed it would be (eek) after reading several horrible and scathing reviews, it most definitely is still not a good movie ... it just isn't THAT awful.

Director Ridley Scott (Gladiator) and Pulitzer-winning writer Cormac McCarthy (No Country for Old Men) -- who is making his screenwriting debut here -- team-up to give us this cinematic misfire about a high-dollar attorney (Michael Fassbender - Shame) who decides to up his corruption quotient by getting involved with the deadly and dangerous world of drug trafficking through a middle-man/friend (Brad Pitt - Se7en).

His girlfriend (Penelope Cruz - Volver) knows little of his extra-curricular activities outside of work as he becomes involved with some larger-than-life figures in Juarez, Mexico (Javier Bardem - No Country for Old Men / Cameron Diaz - Gangs of New York).

The story wants to be all-kinds-of complex and it is ... too much so as we never really understand the why of any of this. An unbelievably thin and unconvincing ultimate baddie doesn't help here. The filmmakers have assembled a top-notch cast with some decent supporting players -- Dean Norris, Natalie Dormer, John Leguizamo, Bruno Ganz and Rosie Perez; but it is all for naught.

Just when the film begins to work and get interesting it falls apart again ... which makes me lament that I just didn't really care about these people (Cruz being the possible exception although she has little to actually do here).

Blah.