This rough patch of Ridley Scott’s esteemed filmography needs to stop soon and nowhere is closer to the truth than this film. Written by author Cormac McCarthy of No Country for Old Men fame, the story and I use the term loosely, goes as follows. Michael Fassbender, simply known as the Counsellor, is a lawyer for high profile members of the Cartel and soon gets involved with cementing a drug deal that would be worth a great deal to those involved. He is set up by his friend and client, Reiner (played by Javier Bardem) and financially ambitious girlfriend Malkina (played by Cameron Diaz). Setting up the deal with business associate Westray (played by Brad Pitt) after being warned of the potential danger involved, The Counsellor is unconcerned and proceeds anyway but very soon, dangerous people are involved, deceit and murder starts to become a foot and what starts out as a potential business deal goes horribly awry and the Counsellor has to soon defend himself as well as his fiance (played by Penelope Cruz) from sudden doom.
When you have a cast like that, with Ridley Scott behind the wheel and with Cormac McCarthy penning the dialogue, it sounds like a winning combination – alas no. This is one of the most dull, pretentious, and creatively inert films that I’ve ever seen. Cormac McCarthy’s dialogue is one of the worst elements of this film, he is a talented author but here it’s like the Emperor has received new clothes and also a script that was this film, as one big gift package. Every conversation in this film is written in the most pseudo-intellectual drivel that it’s hard to take seriously but because the film relies on this spoken, exposition driven narrative, it becomes overly boring.
It doesn’t help that Ridley Scott directs the cast to speak the dialogue in mostly hushed and serious tones, that it really makes it seem difficult and forced. The film takes plenty of twists and turns and character arcs that overlap each other, which heavily remind you that films like Steven Soderbergh’s Traffic or Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s Amores Perros have done this narrative much better and with far more interest behind it all. Michael Fassbender is one of our most talented actors working today and he really does try to give the dialogue some credibility but even he can’t save this film from falling apart.
Not to mention that despite some sequences that are violent and out there, there was one scene that involved Cameron Diaz and a car that really defied belief and really should have been taken out the film all together, it didn’t further the story or really add anything, it was just gratuitous. On paper or as a simple pitch, there is something there that I’m sure would have seemed like a film to knock it right out of the park but as it is, it doesn’t even reach first base. I think as well that this film with all its intellectual dialogue and criss-crossing that the film is deliberately meant to be vague and mysterious but honestly just comes across as incomprehensible nonsense.
The cast themselves are talented in general but they deserve better material than what they were given and Ridley Scott really does need to find a better platform to showcase his momentous storytelling abilities – one can only hope.
1/5
Filmlife 