The Counselor

Cast of Characters:

The Counselor - Michael Fassbender

Laura - Penelope Cruz

Malkina - Cameron Diaz

Reiner - Javier Bardem

Westray - Brad Pitt

Director - Ridley Scott

Screenplay - Cormac McCarthy

Rated R for graphic violence, some grisly images, strong sexual content and language

      Michael Fassbender, Cameron Diaz, Academy Award nominee Brad Pitt and Oscar winners Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem team up with Oscar nominated director Ridley Scott in The Counselor.

      A man simply known as the Counselor (Michael Fassbender) has it all: a successful job, a luxurious home and a gorgeous bombshell wife, Laura (Penelope Cruz). It doesn't seem to be enough though as he decides to dive into the dark, seedy world of drug trafficking.

      With the help of a middleman named Westray (Brad Pitt), the Counselor forms a partnership with entrepreneur by day/drug kingpin by night Reiner (Javier Bardem) and his girlfriend Malkina (Cameron Diaz). When things naturally go south, the consequences the Counselor faces as as Westray says, "I'd say bad... then multiply that by ten."

      I was really looking forward to this. You have a cast that features an Oscar nominee, two Oscar winners, Michael Fassbender - who's quickly proving himself to be A-list talent as well - and even Cameron Diaz. Somewhere within Diaz is a talented actress, the problem is that she wastes it on crappy projects. In the hands of a great director, such as three time Oscar nominated director Ridley Scott, she can be more than effective. She's proven that before working with Spike Jonze and Martin Scorsese. When you combine a cast such as this with a director like Scott and then a screenplay written by critically acclaimed novelist Cormac McCarthy, you expect great, Oscar baiting things... Too bad, that's not the case here. While there are moments of inspired greatness within The Counselor, including a creatively bloody murder scene, the weakness can be found no further than Mr. McCarthy himself. Now, McCarthy is widely known as the "Shakespeare of the West" for good reasons. Many of works written like a Shakespearean tragedy. We've seen it adapted perfectly before in the Coen brothers' No Country for Old Men and there are traces of it found here. There's a difference between writing a novel and writing a screenplay and it's unfortunate that McCarthy succumbs to what I call Stephen King Syndrome. Just 'cause you're a great novelist, doesn't mean you'll make a great screenwriter. It really is a shame too 'cause the performances are uniformly fantastic, Scott brings his trademark visual style to the table and the cinematography by Dariusz Wolski is great. What we get from McCarthy though is too many meandering characters and subplots that really lead to nowhere. If anything, that shows you the talent level of the stars performing here for how they are able to act so well considering how poorly developed many of the characters are (with the one exception of Pitt's Westray, who I wanted to see more of). What I would've done if I was Ridley Scott was recommend a screenwriting collaboration for McCarthy to help smoothen things out. It's not out of the question for him. Yeah, I get he's a famed novelist, but he's not a screenwriter. Plus, Scott's not some rookie feature-length debut guy. This is Ridley Scott, dammit! We're talking the man that was at the helm of Gladiator, American Gangster, Thelma & Louise, Matchstick Men and two of the greatest sci-films ever made in Alien and Blade Runner. The man carries some pull in the film industry and he should've at least told McCarthy that maybe someone with a bit more experience in screenplays lending a hand wouldn't be so bad.

      I didn't hate The Counselor, but considering it's the kinda movie I wanted to love, that makes it a disappointment; in fact, it could be the biggest disappointment of the year so far. It's beautiful to look at in all its sexy and violent glory, the cast is great and I'll never be able to look at Cameron Diaz, or cars for that matter, the same again, but it just fell around okay for me. That's the problem, though. You don't want okay from a cast like this and from Ridley Scott. You don't even want good. You expect and want great, but we don't get that. I give The Counselor a C (★★½).