O Conselheiro do Crime

With a star studded cast, featuring the likes of Michael Fassbender, Penelope Cruz, Cameron Diaz, Javier Bardem and Brad Pitt, and directed by Ridley Scott, with a script from one of the greatest American novelists alive, Cormac McCarthy, obviously I went to see "The Counselor" on face value alone. Admittedly, aside from the fact that this is not a very cinematic endeavor, the first half of this film is pretty bad. That is to say the first act and a half is far too cryptic for its own good, with dialogue that is in love with its own double entendres and lines which sound as though they would be more at home in a novel than spoken aloud by human beings. But, if you're patient enough to stay with this film until the second hour, you will be rewarded by witnessing how McCarthy and Scott weave this almost action-less tale together, quietly guiding audiences into a brilliantly disturbing and hypnotic finale.

The performances (the standout coming from Bardem) are all fine here. These are all great actors, so what else would you expect? Same goes for the direction. The wildcard with "The Counselor" was always McCarthy's transition from novel to feature film scriptwriting; a transition that was a first act failure on the grounds of dialogue alone. In that same breath, his high caliber story of a lawyer who gets involved in drug trafficking and his masterful construction redeems him almost entirely by the time it's all said and done.

As I alluded to before, there is not much action here, which may give the illusion to some that sequences are occurring but nothing is progressing, which may also promote watch checking. But within this conversation based film, as much as I would have preferred the dialogue to have been handled with more subtlety, the subtext is always interesting, gaining its momentum from the converging stories within the second half.

Final Thought: "The Counselor" is the film equivalent of an artichoke. You either like it or you don't. And both are understandable. Maybe one day, once all of the critical heat dies down, history will look more kindly on this movie. But for now, there will be flaws within it that a majority of mainstream audiences just won't be able to forgive.

Written by Markus Robinson, Edited by Nicole I. Ashland

This terrifically cast, sleek, glossy and intricately plotted Ridley Scott thriller from a Cormac McCarthy script wasn't a success and yet it may be one of the best things Scott ever did. "The Counselor" of the title is Michael Fassbender, a lawyer moving in high circles that includes drugs baron Javier Bardem and his lady Cameron Diaz as well as a shady 'cowboy' played by Brad Pitt and his involvement with such characters leads him into situations he might otherwise not want to find himself in.

It's typical McCarthy, even if it's not front rank McCarthy, and maybe the tortuous plot proved too much for both critics and audiences but it's a movie that uses its showy cast , (that also inclues Penelope Cruz, Bruno Ganz, Rosie Perez, Edgar Ramirez and Rueben Blades), to excellent effect and thanks to Dariusz Wolski's cinematography it looks terrific. Best of all, it's a movie that takes familiar material and shakes it about in unconventional ways. In the acting stakes it's Pitt and Diaz who own the picture which certainly didn't deserve the critical thrashing it got at the time and is now ripe for reassessment.

After finally watching this film i had to write my very first review. Once hearing about this film and who was in it i was already excited about it. I waited for the trailer and again this kept me pumped for the film. Then after its release i began reading reviews and watching what people had to say about the film and i completely lost interest. Last time i do that, i really enjoyed this film and think its been hard done by in the reviews.

Where as some would say it can be slow and the dialogue long i actually enjoyed it. For me the slow gradual build up was a snowball of tension. The lengthy speeches can be a little hard to follow or cryptic but overall i did enjoy this film.

Its a film that doesn't spend any time spoon feeding the plot and it is a film where a gunshot actually has some gravity to it.

I'm not sure what most people were expecting, but it's obvious the movie did not meet whatever that was. If you have so many big names in one movie, those expectations can get very heavy obviously. Still this movie is really good, just not on what some thought it promised them. I haven't seen the trailer yet, but I know those trailers can be deceiving as well as promoting something.

The movie has a very philosophical strain and can be watched a couple of times. There is also a sexual tone that some might find disturbing (especially the car window thing, you'll know when you watch it), but it's all about dominance. And it's about life choices and planting things that you will for better or worse reap ... not everyones cup of tea, but a very strong movie nevertheless.

This film tells the story of a young lawyer who turns to drug trade to make a quick buck to finance the ring for his fiancée.

"The Counselor" has a stellar cast, and I have looked forward to watching it. However, I was already disappointed by the initial scene. It involves Penelope Cruz in bed with a man for a whole six minutes, and yet the director manages to make a sec scene that's boring. The film goes rapidly downhill, as the characters incessantly talk, continuously talk and forever talk. Watching this film is like listening to a lecture. Even though the film contains gruesome murders and gun battles, it's boring beyond belief and I can't wait for it to end. I can't believe that a crime thriller can be so boring.