Counselor, The

Synopsis: Ridley Scott, from an original script by Cormac McCarthy, directs this heavy hitting thriller about a drugs deal gone wrong.

Aroview: Michael Fassbender plays a successful Texan laywer whose greed prompts him to finally accept the offer of some ill-gotten gains from one of his dodgy clients (Javier Bardem). It’s a downward spiral from then on as his one decision to go to the dark side results in no end of trouble, for him and his loved ones.

I think the reason why people have so much trouble with this picture is that director Scott seems to be in love with all of the things that writer McCarthy hates. He shoots the luxury, pampered and indulgent lifestyles of his awful characters with more care than he has devoted to anything since Black Hawk Down while McCarthy’s narrative suggests that not only them, but all of us, deserve to go to Hell without passing go or collecting $200. We spend so much of our critical careers complaining about unoriginal films and then when something unique comes along most people don’t know how to respond to it. Go figure. ~ Dan Slevin