Tuesday 31 January 2017

The Counselor (2013)



A lawyer finds himself in over his head when he gets involved in drug trafficking.

Fascinating left-field (and downbeat) thriller plays out its plot like an ancient tragedy about guilt and fate; excellently directed with a stellar cast of characters.

Maltin*1/2: "Grimly fascinating train wreck of a movie. Novelist Cormac McCarthy, in his first screenplay, provides an all-star cast with dialogue so dense it's indecipherable...Opens with a sexy sequence under the bed-sheets with him [Michael Fassbender] and Cruz, but it's downhill from there. Fetishists might check out the scene where cold-blooded Diaz makes love to a Ferrari, but there's nothing else to recommend here, despite a formidable lineup of actors."

[N.B.: I usually force myself to write my 'review' in a single sentence only, but in this case I might need to add some thoughrts. Before watching this movie I was aware that it had got quite a few negative reviews and it was rumored that the plot was impossible to follow. However, I found no problem following the story; maybe I was in advanatge, since I've read all of McCarthy's novels and knew what to expect of him. The script is indeed unusual as it is elliptical, but it is construed to enable you to connect the dots. Similarly, you needn't know the full background of the characters' motivations, since it is based on the one central motive: greed. That said I find this to be an amazing and excellent movie, but slightly inferior to No Country For Old Men, which you can comapre it with.]

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