Movie Review - The Counselor

The Counselor ** (R) Ridley Scott built a solid reputation name from producing and directing action flicks since cult favorite Blade Runner, though he’s also delivered more thoughtful crime fare like Thelma & Louise and American Gangster. This one is about a criminal lawyer (Michael Fassbender) around the Texas border who gets into a money bind and decides to partner up with some of his drug-smuggling clientele for one big score. Ideally, that will also finance his marriage to a lovely innocent (Penelope Cruz). Javier Bardem, Cameron Diaz and Brad Pitt highlight the other players involved in moving a truckload of cocaine from Juarez, Mexico, to Chicago.

The film delivers a few delicious sexually-charged scenes (especially one highlight-reel moment for Diaz), and almost as much violence as one would expect. The plot includes a couple of suitable twists for suspense. But everyone Fassbinder meets is a windy philosopher, offering more observations about human nature, destiny and assorted metaphysical claptrap than any college lecture course should inflict on its captive enrollees. I haven’t heard so many floating vagaries since Kung Fu went off the air in the mid-1970s. Or Dr. Phil without a time limit.

An early scene in which a jeweler explains more about the intricacies of a diamond than the story, or anyone in the audience, needed set the tone. That sort of excessive verbiage undermined what could have been a fine product in the vein of No Country for Old Men, which deployed Bardem and every other asset on hand, to much greater advantage. Next time, Ridley - more splatter, less chatter. (10/25/13)