First, a disclaimer. I viewed this film under duress, not as a first on my list. Hope to put up something more interesting soon. SD Asian Film Festival begins early in November and includes the promising Hong Kong thriller Blind Detective.
The script for The Counselor is direct from Cormac McCarthy and many of the tropes from No Country For Old Men resurface. Fate and Greed trudge mercilessly through the film. I guess No Country worked because McCarthy wrote the book, but the Coens wrote the script and the pretensions were minimized. The Counselor is sharp in fits, but the rhythm stutters badly as the actors choke on portentous sawdust. I'm also going to mark McCarthy an old school sexist, whose female characters hew to the virginal or the viperous. Cameron Diaz, wearing overtly sinister makeup, gets the unpleasant task of embodying the highly sexual and (coincidentally) scheming female lead. Javier Bardem as a mellow, reflective drug dealer achieves the only human, and humorous characterization in the film. Michael Fassbender is sadly wasted. Wait for Netflix and then be sure to be multitasking.
