The Counselor
2013 · Directed by Ridley Scott
Original language: English
- thriller
- crime
- drama
The story
A lawyer finds himself in far over his head when he attempts to get involved in drug trafficking.
What it’s like
Hot, sun-bleached desert light and glossy, expensive interiors give this film a sleek, dread-soaked surface, with Ridley Scott's wide compositions of Texas and Mexican highways, dusty border towns and immaculate white villas set against long, unhurried silences. Scenes often hold on a single lingering image, a car's interior, a flower in a glass, a hanging wire, while Daniel Pemberton's sparse, pulsing score and the rhythms of McCarthy's dialogue, full of philosophical monologues about fate and wire-thin cruelty, slow the pace to a deliberate crawl. The mood is cool, fatalistic and quietly sinister, a noir about luxury and consequence rather than a shootout thriller. Violence is sudden, sparing and often offscreen, but one or two scenes are brutal and graphic, with a disturbing death handled in unflinching close detail, and sexual content and nudity appear in several sequences. It suits a late-night viewing for those who enjoy talky, atmospheric crime drama and don't mind a bleak ending.
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