“Drugs,” “sex” and “catfish” are the words you will probably be repeating once you have seen Ridley Scott’s 2013 thriller The Counselor.
Imagine yourself watching a seemingly endless montage of credits featuring the director’s name three times, followed by drugs being loaded onto a sewage truck. The film finally opens up to, believe it or not, a seemingly uninspired sex scene between two unknown lovers before they embark on a tale of greed and consequences of their choices.
This is how The Counselor presents itself to the viewers. The all-star cast includes X-Men: First Class’s Michael Fassbender and Pirates of the Caribbean’s Penelope Cruz in the lead roles of The Counselor and Laura. They are accompanied by Cameron Diaz, Javier Bardem and Brad Pitt. The film was directed by Prometheus’s Ridley Scott.
The Counselor follows the story of a man named “The Counselor,” who makes the decision to join in a high-stakes drug operation. The operation goes awry as he ironically finds himself being advised on how he can fix his mistakes and ultimately live with the consequences of his decisions.
The film fails in this, however, as it leaves audiences wanting to hug their loved ones at its depressing conclusion, which leads audience members to think upon the reality of their decisions and how deadly true greed can be. The Counselor is also slow in its beginning and delivery and can leave viewers trying to figure out what is happening rather than following the story.
That being said, there are some interesting themes that are present in The Counselor. For example, the meaning of diamonds and their power is heavily explored as they represent the cold, hard greed and the lengths people are willing to go to achieve their goal in having more wealth and power.
Elements of the “cheetah” can also clearly be seen in one of the main antagonists played by Diaz. She plays a character that is beautiful, yet deadly to others as she coldly manipulates her prey like a predator to get what she wants. In one scene, we actually see two cheetahs stepping over their former and now dead kingpin owner’s body, matching the cold, predator-like nature of moving on to the next kill.
The Counselor is certainly not a film for everyone because of its slow, realist-style. However, if viewers can get past the flaws of the movie, it gives viewers a tale of the despairing consequences that sometimes await us on the other side of our choices.
