cult film freak: RIDLEY SCOTT DIRECTS THE COUNSELOR

Written by James M. Tate / 10/26/2013 / 1 Comment / 2013 , brad pitt , cameron diaz , javier bardem , michael fassbender , neo noir , ridley scott

RIDLEY SCOTT DIRECTS THE COUNSELOR

10/26/2013 | 1 Comment

year: 2013 cast: Michael Fassbender, Javier Bardem, Cameron Diaz, Brad Pitt, Penélope Cruz rating: *1/2

In the prologue of Ridley Scott’s THE COUNSELOR, a bedroom scene leading to the opening credits is for mature audiences only – and extremely patient ones. It’s overlong and means close to nothing except what Michael Fassbender’s title character wants to do with Laura (Penélope Cruz), the all-engrossing love of his life… And that’s about as deep as the movie gets…

With two hours of treadmill conversations between The Counselor, a lawyer trying his hand at drug trafficking, and several people including sympathetic drug lord Reiner who, played by Javier Bardem, resembles a Spanish John Cassavetes with electro-shocked hair and Brad Pitt’s Westray, a roguish connection describing the dark future Counselor faces if things go wrong… And they do, pretty fast… at which point the music gets tenser but the pace, with a few ultra-violent deaths aside, continues in the same dull fashion…

Cameron Diaz, as Malkina, tries the hardest as an evil rich femme fatale with a penchant for bloodthirsty cheetahs, icy diatribes, surreptitious manipulation and double-crossing, but she lacks worthy prey. Even Fassbender’s Counselor, who risks everything... including the woman he loves... remains in sleep mode throughout, as the morally ambiguous main character ("way in over his head") is an essential part of the Film Noir/Neo Noir/Steamy Thriller template, but they must have something to lose – that the audience actually cares about... Ain't nothing here, folks.

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Tags : 2013 , brad pitt , cameron diaz , javier bardem , michael fassbender , neo noir , ridley scott

James M. Tate

1 comment:

Ripper MadnessNovember 12, 2013 at 10:29 PM
I've been home from the movie now for 6 hours and I can imagine a darkened movie theater, everyone has long gone home, the projector flickers to life flashing blurred images upon the screen. It doesn't matter who it is, the images are not important, what is important, is that the images are static, and all they do is talk talk talk talk talk. This movie shouldn't be called THE COUNSELOR, it should be called THE CONVERSATIONS.

Great review.
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