Cameron Diaz (l.) as Malkina and Penelope Cruz as Laura in "The Counselor," a crime drama from screenwriter Cormac McCarthy.
Deep inside “The Counselor” are facets of a good story about morality overtaken by greed. There are also good actors prowling about, trying to make the best of the often ridiculous execution.
But ultimately, this dull tour of a thieving, primal underworld is just a lot of high-talking hogwash.
The Counselor (Michael Fassbender, r.) consults with a professional thief (Brad Pitt, l.) in "The Counselor."
Michael Fassbender is an El Paso lawyer we know only as the Counselor — since everyone refers to him, often ridiculously, as “Counselor.” He’s got a new fiancée (Penelope Cruz, lovely and smiley but underused) and a connection to a wealthy, outlandish wanna-be club owner, Reiner (Javier Bardem). The Counselor is upstanding, but he’s willing to throw it all away to make a killing from Reiner’s transport of diamonds from Mexico.
After consulting with a pro larcenist (Brad Pitt) who knows the angles, the Counselor prepares to watch the theft pay off. But Reiner’s scary girlfriend Malkina (Cameron Diaz), whose tattooed spots on her back resemble the ones on Reiner’s pet leopards, is a wild card. Will she help make the Counselor’s deal go south?
Javier Bardem plays an outlandish would-be club owner and Cameron Diaz is his dangerous girlfriend in "The Counselor."
The movie’s real twist is director Ridley Scott’s calm guidance of a showboating, florid screenplay by author Cormac McCarthy. McCarthy’s terse, spare books “The Road” and “No Country for Old Men” resulted in brutal, gripping movies that didn’t say much but packed a wallop. Here, chattering characters deliver speeches with lines like “The truth has no temperature” and “We announce to the darkness that we will not be made less by the brevity of our lives.”
In the unpleasant world of “The Counselor,” women are devious, duplicitous or due for the trash heap, and philosophical discussions come with the overly dramatic snapping shut of cigarette lighters. Garish deaths and a goofy reliance on sexuality devour any chance of subtlety.
Penelope Cruz stars as Laura, the Counselor' fiancée, who becomes an unwitting player in his dark dealings.
As for the cast, Fassbender keeps things at a low boil, but this great actor (currently playing real villainy in “12 Years a Slave”) is stuck with a role no deeper than the android he played in Scott’s “Prometheus.” With his fluttering hands and electrified hair, Bardem is fun, and Pitt delivers a wily pro’s extended cameo, though Diaz and Cruz spout some embarrassing dirty talk. Diaz’s carnal activity on a car windshield is like a Penthouse parody, immediately becoming a bad-sexy moment to rival anything in “Showgirls.”
This is a movie cut from other movies, though, making a point of quoting “Mickey Rourke talking to whatsisname in ‘Body Heat’ ” to signify where it’s going. When a thriller is so flawed it hopes to gain reflected luster like that, it’s time to seek new representation.
jneumaier@nydailynews.com
On a mobile device? Click here to watch the movie trailer.
0 comments:
Post a Comment