The Counselor (2013)

Directed by: Ridley Scott
Country: USA / UK

Movie Review: Written by the imaginative novelist/screenwriter Cormac McCarthy (“The Road”, “No Country For Old Men”), and exhibiting a cast beyond suspicion that includes Fassbender, Bardem, Cruz, Diaz, and Pitt, “The Counselor” was victim of its narrative traps and a plot in which its disperse parts aren’t always put together with clarity. The film was directed and produced by Ridley Scott who, for now, abandoned the spatial adventures he got famous for (“Blade Runner, “Alien”, “Prometheus), to embark in a story with the greed as central focus. Once the story involves Mexican drug cartels and nebulous schemes, we inevitably must add sex, drugs, and some violence to it. The results are not really memorable but I must confess that other similar movies in the same genre had less impact on me, case of Oliver Stone’s “Savages”. While Fassbender was solid in the role of a man known as ‘Counselor’ who asks for everybody’s counseling after fall in disgrace, the rest of the cast had acceptable performances, with Diaz being the weakest as libertine, greedy villain, but providing the most unforgettable scene of the movie, when she rubs herself in a Ferrari’s sunroof, leaving her extravagant husband (Bardem) in a state of shock. Although stereotyped in almost every aspect, “The Counselor” managed to create good moments of darkness, being talkative and protracted in one side, and super-violent and vigorous in the other. After a careful analysis, the balance is positive, but just don’t expect many surprises here.