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The Counselor is one of the rare example of how I managed to watch a film earlier than my home country Indonesia. To be honest, this only the second one, the first one being Les Miserables earlier this year. The Counselor is Ridley Scott's follow-up to his excellent yet polarizing sci-fi Prometheus. Scripted by Cormac McCarthy of No Country for Old Men and starring an ensemble cast that can't be refused, The Counselor definitely has everything on the table. The cast includes Michael Fassbender, Penelope Cruz, Javier Bardem, Cameron Diaz and Brad Pitt. And you'll be surprised by the film's 'cameo' extravaganza later in the film. This is an interesting trivia for the film: in Japan The Counselor is titled more vaguely 悪の法則 / Law of Evil. Strange because Japan tends to simplify movie titles (the latest I learned is that the Japanese title of Ben Stiller's The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is just Life!).

The story follows a counselor simply known as The Counselor as he made a seemingly great deal involving drugs from Mexico with his friends Reiner (Bardem) and Westrey (Pitt) to start a family with his lover Laura (Cruz). But there's a mole in the group with her own's scheme, Malkina (Diaz).

For me, that's the whole plot of the film. Since this film is extremely dialogue-driven and script-heavy, I may missed something due to heavy accent deliveries by Bardem or just I was still amazed by the greatness of the previous sentence. The film itself is too convoluted on the story for me it was quite confusing. It's almost like an appetizer to Cloud Atlas. There are bigger stakes than the life of the titular counselor but it was not conveyed clearly. The film was too long during the first half, but not until the story moved in the middle, the film started to get exciting. No doubt, I need to watch it again for clarity. But what McCarthy lacked on storytelling, he made it up in his excellent characters such as The Counselor himself, the bad-haired Reiner, or the possible-psychopath Malkina. The actors playing them are amazing. I mean this might be the first film I saw with a great Cameron Diaz performance in it. Fassbender is superb, Bardem is as always, Pitt also looked comfortable in the role although he's just Brad Pitt, it's a pity that Penelope Cruz's role isn't big enough.The second half of the film has a great number of cameos, from ASAC Schrader Dean Norris, John Leguizamo, Edgar Ramirez in a near-pointless scene, or hottie Natalie Dormer (sadly playing an American here). Cormac McCarthy's script is very great. It was full of killer one-liners or just thoughtful, undeniably great long speeches. However, McCarthy's script might be off-putting for some, Ridley Scott did a great job keeping the interest going on. The set-pieces in this film are also amazing, I counted two outstanding scenes, first of course, Cameron Diaz having sex with a Ferrari and second is Brad Pitt got Bolito-ed. The car sex scene was jaw-dropping and the Bolito was pulse-pounding accompanied with an eargasmic score by Daniel Pemberton. The Counselor is definitely the true definiton of 'that so cool' and 'wtf is happening!' combined.  Maybe the film was ahead of its time. The potential is there but not reaped entirely. Maybe it's going to be worshipped in the years to come. Maybe not. The Counselor: rated 3/4


I didn't review Carrie as promised, but I will review Captain Phillips in the next two weeks!