“The Counselor” has a cast of stars: Michael Fassbender, Brad Pitt, Penélope Cruz and Cameron Diaz. Yet somehow, even they couldn’t save this movie.
When watching the trailer, audiences probably thought, “I’m not sure what it’s actually about, but it looks pretty good. I’m sure you just need to watch it to know.” Unfortunately, when they left the theater, those audiences were still a bit confused about what they had just watched. And not in a good way.
“The Counselor” has three different story lines with Fassbender’s character as the link between them. The Counselor, whose real name we never learn, has a great career as a lawyer and a loving fiancé (Cruz), but he is desperate for money.
The audience is left in the dark about why he needs money, but it drives him far enough that he decides to get involved with drug trafficking. From there, the movie goes in circles, showing the drug smugglers, Counselor’s investment in his associate’s (Javier Bardem, Skyfall) club, meetings with his middleman Westray (Pitt) and Malkina’s (Diaz) strange sex life. When the drugs get stolen, everyone goes on the run from the drug cartel.
The story doesn’t end with a bang. It simply drifts off leaving its audience with questions about what happens to Counselor, who Malkina was making plans with, and what happened to Rainer’s pet cheetahs. “The Counselor” leaves loose ends and doesn’t answer many of the questions its audience asks. The movie had everything going for it: Brad Pitt, cheetahs and drug trafficking. This leads audiences to ask, “What went wrong?”
