THE COUNSELOR

Early on in THE COUNSELOR, a character is asked how well he knows an associate’s love interest. When he responds by asking “why”, he is told that we cannot truly know someone until we also know what they want.

Where most of the characters in this story are concerned, the answer to that question is simple: all they want is “more”. All of them are living quite comfortably, but all of them have a want – perhaps a need – for more. More money, more power, more status. Knowing that, we know all that we need to know including how this story will play out.

Michael Fassbender plays the titular Counselor (we never learn his name). Everything about him feeds a carefully crafted image; his clothes, his car, and certainly his fiancée Laura (Penelope Cruz). Her beauty and sexiness are second-to-none, completing the appearance that Counselor is a man who has it all.

Tthe ruth though, is that he doesn’t have it all, and to make up for what he doesn’t have, he turns to his friend and client Reiner (Javier Bardem). Reiner is a businessman and drug runner who is also crafting an image of a man who has everything. The difference between them is that the woman in Reiner’s life is cut from a different cloth. His affections are directed at Malkina (Cameron Diaz) – the sort of woman whose fingernails are chrome-coloured and can tell what a diamond is worth just to look at it.

Everything comes down to Counselor and Reiner though, and their decision to work with an associate named Westray (Brad Pitt) on a lucrative drug deal. It’s very high risk, and very high reward. The men seem to have everything planned down to the last detail.

Pity that a detail that had absolutely nothing to do with their planning looks to be their undoing.

As the lights came up on THE COUNSELOR, I found myself bewildered, bemused, and somewhat berated. I had that feeling in my stomach that I get when I eat a greasy cheeseburger. I had seen things I couldn’t unsee, and felt the overwhelming urge to take a shower. However, scrub as I did, I couldn’t wash away its effect. One day later it started setting in: I had watched some very pretty people do some very ugly things. I had watched someone who had lived a calculated life suddenly act out of panic. Most interestingly, I saw someone try to plead and reason his way out of a situation that was entirely out of his control.

It’s that last detail that really buoys the film. THE COUNSELOR is written by Cormac McCarthy, a man who, you may recall, once warned us “You can’t stop what’s coming”. He is a storyteller that knows how much we as humans get obsessed over what’s fair, what’s right, and what’s fixable. He can see how many of us see the world the way Counselor does; that if we could just explain ourselves, we can set things right. The problem though, is that things seldom work that way. Situations unfold, and wheels begin to turn. Stopping the machine once it’s started running just isn’t a possibility, try as we might. The lesson, to finish McCarthy’s thought, is that “It isn’t all waiting on you; that’s vanity”.

Clearly it’s a lesson Counselor never learned.

Another thing I have come to appreciate within THE COUNSELLOR is Cameron Diaz as Malkina. At first blush, she seems “too much”. The hair, the make-up, the cheetahs (that’s plural), the tattoos. She looks like a woman who is able to get anything she asks for, but never thought to ask for taste. However, while Diaz’s portrayal of Malkina at first seems over-the-top, it begins to work when we think about what a modern femme fatale would be. She would be a gold digger, and possibly even power-hungry. She would get what she wanted by landing a man who is rich, horny, and not-so-bright. To get that sort of man, a modern femme fatale would look and act a certain way. So while at first, it all seems “too much”, what Diaz does as Malkina might be the most bloodthirsty femme fatale we’ve seen in many years.

As these characters come together, we find ourselves taking a long look at their wants and needs. In truth, they need nothing. Westray seems to understand this best, as he explains to Counselor that he would be quite happy living in a monastery cleaning the steps with very little notice. Laura, likewise, needs very little. She is the most virtuous of them all and only wants the good in Counselor next to her to remain happy. She is overwhelmed at being given an engagement ring – she couldn’t care less what it is worth.

However, where people like Reiner and Malkina are concerned, what they need is superseded by what they want. They want to throw high-class parties. They want to drive top-of-the-line cars. They want to own cheetahs as pets (who doesn’t?). They will always want, and while this story does not take place in our world, there are many in our world like them. They too are dangerous, and sadly unfulfilled.

In sizing up THE COUNSELOR, I’m reminded of its opening scene – one where Malkina and Reiner watch their Cheetahs run around a landscape that seems out-of-place. He asks her “you like it because it reminds you of somewhere else?” to which she responds “I like it for itself”. Looking at the film, its garishness, its vulgarity…it’s a fair question to ask if I like it because it reminds me of something else. The truth is that I don’t. I like it because it wears its high-end seediness like a badge of honour, in full knowledge that many will shred it for just that.

THE COUNSELOR is excessive, overplayed, over-written, and dirty – and I like it for itself.

Matineescore: ★ ★ ★ out of ★ ★ ★ ★

What did you think? Please leave comments with your thoughts and reactions on THE COUNSELOR.