The Counselor

With this film, I had to watch the key scenes over again to catch on and make all the motivations, behind-the-scenes games, and alliances click for me. The key moments were not the shootouts or executions of the film characters, but the dialogues. Carefully crafted and sophisticated dialogues, like when I eagerly played the conversation between the lawyer and the cartel boss three times to savor the subtle play of a predator toying with its prey. The Counselor was made for a specific layer of educated and tuned-in viewers, definitely not a film for a broad audience, and I wouldn't hesitate to label it a cult film in the original sense of the word - not as a commercially successful film, but rather a film that captivates a small group of connoisseurs. While Scott's Prometheus was downright dumb, The Counselor is a smart film. It's smart to the point of being annoying and unsympathetic. It's like a cross between No Country for Old Men and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. It shares the same screenwriter and deals with the world of drug cartels and underworld characters, and it also has a narrative style that is difficult for the viewer to digest. The absence of characters to root for, for example, doesn't help. The only positive character who accidentally enters the world of dirty dealings is mercilessly crushed by events, and the rest of the twisted characters are simply competing to see how far they can go in their depravity. The screenwriter doses out information in small bits and keeps much to himself; you simply have to infer and process things where you would prefer to just consume. In any case, the final form of the film is much more influenced by Cormac McCarthy than Ridley Scott. I do have a few criticisms, for example, that the casting of the stereotypical actress Cameron Diaz wasn't reasonable, although thanks to the director's guidance, it didn't bother me too much. Scott knew what she was capable of as an actress and didn't burden her. Her sexual performance, which may be the icing on the cake for some viewers, felt unnecessary and cheap to me, and in a few other scenes, the crew wanted to play a little bit at being Tarantino. But from the originally intended four stars, I give it five because I won't hesitate to help a film that is so severely underrated. Overall impression: 90%. (08/04/2017)

An elegantly cruel film in which the expensively dressed world of a treacherous lawyer obsessed with innocent women collides with Mexican cartel hell. Ridley Scott conveys this conflict not through action, but through dialogue. He doesn’t milk the audience’s emotions but uses an intellectual, even philosophical approach. The characters’ motivations are only suggested, and waiting for their (ambiguous) reactions and the escalation of tense situations are what drive the film forward. The philosophical musings are nothing special, but I enjoyed the acting performances and well-done visuals. If the plot had been more clearly constructed, I’d give it four stars. Cameron Diaz spreading her legs over the windshield of a Ferrari is unforgettable. The Counselor is a guilty pleasure in the form of an exercise in vanity. (23/12/2013)

I will not stoop to commenting on the senility of Ridley Scott, because there are plenty of users aping similar big-mouthed statements from foreign reviews about last year's Prometheus. That said, it is still true that I am quite disappointed. Not that Ridley forgot how to direct – but that he is simply unrecognizable in The Counselor. It is all just Cormac McCarthy's self-absorbed screenplay, materialized into lazily rolling dialogues, framed by a pretty good side plot and very inconsistently cast. While Michael Fassbender and Brad Pitt carry everything, Cameron Diaz turns out to be a casting misstep unlike any I can remember. Every gesture or word feels forced and wooden, making all the smaller positives (the soundtrack, the action flashes) almost forgotten. Given the creative team, I can't believe I'm stooping so low, but when even I, who easily let myself be captivated by the story, can see through the random fragments to the very end, something is wrong. (27/11/2013)

A very tough and uncompromising film full of references, philosophy, life wisdom and truths, going against any audience trends, expecting a high level of intellect and the ability to read between the lines. Ambiguous, unclassifiable, yet sometimes hypnotic and captivating. For someone without insights in life, a film about nothing. For the rest, a strong experience. Saw the extended version. (09/02/2014)

As much as I like the work of Ridley Scott (a lot) and Cormac McCarthy (a lot), I have to say that The Counselor impressed me primarily as an extremely pretentious film that (in roughly the following order) entertains, bores, bores, entertains, bores, bores, bores, bores. This makes me sad. It cannot be said that McCarthy wrote anything particularly badly, that Scott filmed anything badly, or that any of the actors acted badly. But I would have been much happier if McCarthy had written a book instead of a screenplay, in which I could read his dialogues in peace, return to them and think about them. Because when they come at me in such a powerful and pounding stream as is the case with this film, they don't make me feel good at all. And that's a shame. Now I have no choice but to buy the book version of the script (which I would have bought anyway), read it, and then give the film another chance. Probably. (29/11/2013)