“What have I just been watching!?” That was the first question that popped into my mind after watching The Counselor. My expectations in advance was that this would be a movie which would be both visually beautiful and also engage on an intellectual level and I had enough reason to do so: directed by Ridley Scott (Blade Runner, Alien, Thelma & Louise, Gladiator, Black Hawk Down) and starring an amazing cast, including Michael Fassbender, Penélope Cruz, Cameron Diaz, Javier Bardem and Brad Pitt. With so much experience and raw acting talent it was not strange to have those expectations. The first blow came before seeing the movie as a lot of bad reviews entered my mailbox. It made me decide not to see the movie at the cinema, but wait until it was available on DVD. It could be that I would like this movie a whole lot more than others did and in the end it is all about forming your own opinion about something. After watching it though that question went through my mind about what I had just seen. Was this an amazing misunderstood Ridley Scott movie or was it as bad as all the reviews had made me believe?
Michael Fassbender is “The Counselor”, a lawyer who is willing to do anything to make his soon to be wife Laura (Penélope Cruz) happy. To earn more money he decides to get in contact with a drug dealer (played by Javier Bardem) and agrees to finance a big transport of drugs from Mexico to America. He contacts Westray (Brad Pitt) who will arrange all of it and makes it clear that if anything goes wrong the Mexican cartel will take action against him. What happens after that is a story about the transport, where (no surprise) something does go wrong.
Michael Fassbender is in top form here, but so are some others. I thought Bruno Gantz was great in the small part he played. Someone else you will not forget soon is Cameron Diaz as the “bitch” who sees everyone around her as prey. A scene in which she has sex on top of a car, while Javier Bardem’s character is watching in disbelief can only be described as bizarre. The movie also has a couple of very violent moments, which are shown in great detail.
The extended cut is 138 minutes, which feels even longer. The reason for this are the overload of long philosophical dialogs which might make you think if you read them in a book, but which do not work in a movie. People simply do not talk like they do here. The result is that the viewer is soon lost in the story. Despite a few memorable moments Ridley Scott has not succeeded in delivering a movie worth watching. The story it tries to tell sometimes seems to almost disappear because of the dialog and is the exact reason I can not answer that question I asked myself. View at your own risk.
So no matter in its theatrical version or in its extended cut, it’s a shitfest? A Ridley Scott film from a script by Cormac McCarthy with a cast like that should’ve worked… on paper. What the fuck happened?
Well, I have not seen the theatrical version, but I think it is. The dialog is one of the big reasons, but I don’t think only that can be blamed for it being such a horrible film.
Yeah, this was AWFUL…easily the worst films of last year. You got more from the plot than I did. I had no idea what the fuck was going on.
I did get the basic plot, but it was hard to see through all those lengthy conversations 😉 It could have been so much better…
I never see you rate a movie below 5, I’m not surprised this one did the trick. I even disliked Fassbender here – he didn’t even try.
Well, I do occasionally rate some movies lower, but in general I am pretty picky in what I watch thus the relative high scores I usually give.
Had no problems with Fassbender myself…
such a disappointing movie indeed. i didn’t even think the acting was good.
I can understand that with such dialogue the opinion of the acting can also be affected 🙂
OUCH! A dreaded 2? I was so excited to see this film but all of the bad press drove me away. What a shame. The cast, the director…how could they have botched it up so bad?
Sorry man, can’t give it any higher… Guess you should give it a chance as there are some bloggers who did like this although there are not that many.
The cast definitely does some interesting stuff here, however, the script is just so damn talky and filled with jargon, that none of it ever makes any sense. It just feels like you’re sitting with somebody you don’t really know all that well, and rather than just letting the awkward silence kick in, the person decides to talk your ear off the whole damn time. Good review Nostra.
That is a great description of it Dan! Love that and it is totally true. I guess I should have walked away from the TV 😉
There’s no way around it – this film is bad. I feel for Ridley Scott, who must surely be scratching his head and wondering where all his talent went.
Well, personally I did enjoy Prometheus!
Ouch! Well I guess it ‘lives up’ to the terrible reviews eh? Well I don’t have any interest in seeing this one despite the cast, I used to be a bit more curious but now not so much.
Unfortunately it did! Yeah, good not to follow any curiosity about this film!
Whoa, very low score. I love seeing Fassbender, so maybe I’ll see this one later (if not turning it off after 30 minutes?). I’ve read the bad reviews as well. Sorry you didn’t like it.
Watch at your own risk Andina 😉
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