The Counselor could have been one of my all-time favorite flicks. I've watched it twice and I'll see it again before I die. I'd rather watch a single ambitious failure than a dozen safe successes and this is a hugely ambitious failure. What draws me back time and again is the challenge of understanding why it doesn't work. The cast is stellar and the script crackles with taut, witty dialog and some thought-provoking philosophy. There are even some very funny jokes. Why wasn't Jesus born in Mexico? You'll have to watch the movie for the answer. The photography is gorgeous, the south west locations unusual and that wonderful French confection, the mise en scene, on the face of it perfect. After two viewings, I'm beginning to understand the problem. There's an odd lack of energy. That's always a danger with an ensemble piece or a story that's centered on an everyman and Ridley Scott's been down that road once before. Kingdom of Heaven had the same issues and it's instructive that the director's cut was ultimately the much better version. So, here we have another ensemble piece built around an everyman. Instead of Orlando Bloom, we have Michael Fassbender but here Fassbender, whose acting credentials are pretty damn good, is oddly uninvolving. Of course, his performance is authentic, restrained and everything you'd expect from an actor of his calibre. But he's shallow. Right there, we get to the heart of the problem. He is shallow. He is an everyman, caught up in a nightmare created by his own weakness. But we never learn the root of that weakness, why he needs the deal so badly and that's what's missing from The Counselor. It's like watching an accident that happened years ago to people you never knew. The rest of the cast? Everyone delivers. Badem hams it up shamelessly, Cruz is as good as always, Ganz has the best cameo, Pitt proves yet again that he's a far better supporting actor than starring and Perez is perfect. The oddity here is Cameron Diaz. She's not miscast as other reviewers have argued. She's actually spot on. The beautiful, smart survivor who's reaching her sell-by date as a rich man's toy and knows it. That it isn't a wholely successful performance is not, I think, her fault. She has perhaps the meatiest and most nuanced role as the real architect of Fassbender's downfall but the script doesn't give her the material to explore her character to the full. This is a flawed film, part thriller, part tragedy, part comedy and part shaggy-dog story. I will watch it again.
Review of The Counselor
