The Counselor

Gentlemen Scott and McCarthy tried, that's for sure, the actors tried even harder - all the familiar faces here give absolutely brilliant performances - but in the end, it's still the screenplay that fails under Scott's direction. It's sometimes very brutal, surprisingly quite perverse, but some characters appear as the script needed, the viewer most of the time has no idea what it's actually about. The whole time I kept thinking that as a book, it could work great, but in a movie, the audience simply doesn't have the time to contemplate it. I'll have to find that book sometime. (09/12/2013)

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)

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)

I think that people today won’t get this movie. It’s intended to be deep, but it’s terribly superficial. Which results in tense friction between both surfaces. The Counselor demonstrates just how Hollywood Scott’s style is. McCarthy wrote an incredible screenplay that breaks all the rules, unfortunately he didn’t make sure that the director applied the necessary parable to the movie. For something like that, I think someone else would be more suitable, Nicolas Winding Refn seems to me to the best choice. Personally, I like Scott’s style, so I was able to get over this point. The cast that he put together is admirable, but it maybe goes against the type proportions of the actors themselves. Fassbender is unusually nice, the evil that they talk about consists of just greed and snobbery. Pitt is fine, although a bit forced in places. Reiner is completely wrong for Bardem, he doesn’t play the role badly, but he’s simply the wrong type. Penny Cruz should be younger and more crazily in love, but she doesn’t make much of an appearance. And then there’s Cameron Diaz as Malkina. A monstrous, calculating bitch and probably the second most important character. McCarthy has probably never written a stronger female part. And Diaz took it on with flying colors. She’s good at swines, but Angelina would have suited better. And now we come to the biggest problem, which is the age rating. The Counselor hovers cleverly along the edge of the 15 rating, but this makes all the murder and sexual tension too sterile. The scene with the Ferrari is special and well delivered, but it doesn’t have the necessary shock effect that the characters talk about. Any torture in this movie is just talked about. It could be due to the artistic intention, but this takes away the credibility, the chilling edge of the picture. What’s the point of polished dialogs about death and doom if we see almost none of it? The Counselor isn’t a bad movie, it’s just too strange to like. (02/12/2013)

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)