The Counselor (2013)

Ridley Scott is a man who knows how to direct a film.  I have seen almost all of the movies that he has directed, and I have never been disappointed in his work.  Sure, there have been a few movies of his that I did not enjoy as much as the others, but he has always done an outstanding job as a director.  I could list off his resume to prove my point, but his work speaks for itself.  His movies are always of the highest quality that they can be.  If you have seen his movies, then you know what I’m talking about.

Knowing what I know about Ridley Scott’s films, I knew that I would have to see his latest movie, The Counselor.  Like most of Scott’s other films, The Counselor has a stellar cast.  What do you usually get when you cross a highly gifted director with a bunch of talented actors?  The answer is a powerful movie.

The Counselor is about a lawyer (Michael Fassbender) who turns his life upside down when he becomes involved in drug trafficking.

The film was written by Cormac McCarthy and the rest of the noteworthy cast includes Javier Bardem, Penelope Cruz, Cameron Diaz, Brad Pitt, Bruno Ganz, Rosie Perez, Sam Spruell, Velibor Topic, Dean Norris, and John Leguizamo.

I did not know quite what to expect before watching this movie.  I knew it was not going to be a happy-go-lucky film because it is about drug trafficking and living on the edge, but it had to be entertaining.

Surprisingly, the film was a little slow, at times.  It was also a little hard to follow until things became clearer in the middle of the movie.  I think this was because the film started in the middle of a story, rather than telling the story from the beginning.  Little by little, you figure out exactly what is going on, but it takes its time getting there while it jumps around.  With all of that being said, it took me some time to get into the story.

The scenery in the movie was flashy and beautiful.  There was a lot of money floating around in the film and this was made very obvious with all of the expensive sports cars and elegant mansions.  It was a great depiction of an extravagant lifestyle gone awry because of a few very bad decisions.  In fact, that seemed to be the overall theme of the movie.  Bad choices will come back to haunt you.  If you live on the edge for too long, eventually you are bound to fall off.

The Counselor had a lot of great and unique characters.  They were made great by the exceptional actors portraying them.  They were made unique by how they were portrayed.  Each of the five main characters looked like they came out of a dark comic book or video game about how drug trafficking can be dangerous.  Whether it was the hair, the make-up, or the clothing, they were certainly a bunch of characters.

The movie was in-your-face.  It was oozing with sexuality, violence, harsh language, and disturbing images.  All of this was done with originality.  There were times when the movie was hard to like, but because of how well-made it was, overall, the film was hard not to like.  I credit Ridley Scott for taking a hard to enjoy tale and making it likable.  The actors were the icing on Scott’s cake, but he chose the flavor and the taste.

I rate this movie a 7.5 on a scale of 1-10.

Buy, rent, or run?  Rent.