So, how excited are you about Ridley Scott’s The Counselor? What if I told you that you have every reason to be? Considering that I know everything is going to happen, I'm still super stoked! We’re pretty much in store for a smart, cutthroat thriller that will certainly get audiences talking this November. Written by novelist Cormac McCarthy (All the Pretty Horses, No Country For Old Men, The Road), the original script is highly reminiscent of the Coen brother’s adaptation of No Countryfrom six years ago, though not as black and white. There is less innocence, and more culpability. No is safe from themselves or an even more sadistic, invisible, and cunning evil. The setting is more international, the logistics more complicated. Think Traffic by way of Mulholland Dr. with some Drive thrown in. I’m curious to see how Scott will distinguish his film from the Coen brothers, as this screenplay will rely heavily on direction, as well as the performances. McCarthy’s writing leaves plenty of room for interpretation. This post is based on an undated script. And, as always, please forgive any kind of logistical misunderstanding of the story's mechanics. And, please, by all mean, if you want to go into the film blind, for the love of Pete, stop right here, as there is a HUGE spoiler in this post. Scroll WAY down for the Script Review, Box Office Prospects, and Early Oscar Chances.
Plot Summary (spoilers)
The initial footage and opening credits features crosscutting of a string of characters in different locales. For the purposes of the description here, each separate scene will be consolidated. In Juarez (?), Mexico, The Counselor (Michael Fassbender) talks in bed with his partner Laura (Penélope Cruz) while they make love. He travels to Amsterdam (!) to choose an engagement ring for her. The dealer (the lovely Bruno Ganz) gets very philosophical with him as he examines the diamonds and shares his Semitic opinions on Western Civilization: “The heart of any culture is to be found in the nature of the hero.” In a Mexican garage, men work on depositing a fifty-gallon drum inside of a temporarily severed tank on a septic truck, before resealing it. The driver pays off a customs inspector in order to cross the border. He parks the truck in a Southwestern desert and watches presumably illegal immigrants off in the distance walk across the sweltering landscape. In a high desert grassland area, Reiner (Javier Bardem), joined by his girlfriend Malkina (Cameron Diaz) watch their pet cheetahs through binoculars. She watches one as it is about to kill a jackrabbit and then rides a horse alongside both of them. Later, Reiner prepares them dinner. On a desert highway at sunset, a motorcyclist referred to as The Green Hornet, rides off into the distance.
After the opening credits, at an ultra-fancy restaurant complete with lounging cheetahs, The Counselor proposes to Laura. At a small grocery store, The Green Hornet gives an inquisitive shopper the business when she asks if he has a pet based on his dog food purchase. He delivers a long monologue about it being the best diet ever, but you have to be careful as he once got hit by a car after finding himself “sitting in the street licking [his] balls.”
 |
| Javier Bardem in an iconic look |
Reiner holds a party at his penthouse, naturally, with cheetahs in attendance. The Counselor pays him a visit in his high-tech office. They talk about females. Reiner: “I always liked smart women, but, it has been an expensive hobby.” Apparently, Malkina is technically proficient, which, in part, Reiner depends on her for. They discuss his past girlfriend Clarissa, who left him for another woman. He also alludes to The Counselor not being as corrupt as he could be, as well as his allure to females. “You want to know if a guy has issues, watch the way women react to him.” Reiner seems to be operating in a world that is antithetical to real life: “Men are attracted to flawed women too of course, but their illusion is that they can fix them. Women don’t want to fix anything.” (Really?) He brings up that given the right circumstances, a man is liable to do anything and then introduces a “bolito,” a Middle-Eastern electronic noosing device meant to slice off a person’s head, before self-destructing. When The Counselor asks how long of a duration it takes to work, Reiner replies, “Minutes … It depends on your collar size.” When The Counselor asks him how he found out about this, Reiner says, “You know how I like gadgets.” The conversation ends with The Counselor mentioning a woman, who left her boyfriend, his client, for another woman and survived a gunshot administered by him. (What’s up with all the women leaving their guy for other women in just the first couple minutes of the movie?)
In the Southwestern desert, the septic tank driver discusses a plan with two others. At a warehouse, the cyclist lounges in his quarters while smoking a joint, as his dog eats her food. These two storylines will later come to a head, so to speak.
At the restaurant, a former client of The Counselor’s, Tony, stops by his table on his way out with his girlfriend. He’s not a fan and tells an inappropriate joke lewdly using his exposed abdominal area to illustrate. In the first of many scenes that Diaz will probably nail, Malkina, quite the fine gem expert, observes Laura’s ring over lunch. Laura discusses her Catholicism as it pertains to the wedding, and Malkina presses her about confessionals. It’s established that they are two women who operate in two completely different worlds, which will lead to two completely different outcomes as the movie progresses.
 |
| Don't know why, but, this reminds me of J.D. escorted by authorities in the stairwell in Thelma & Louise |
The Counselor meets an associate Westray (Brad Pitt) at a Mexican dive bar to discuss a drug deal with a 4,000% return rate. Westray explains the details and comments, “You’d be surprised at the people who are in the business.” His social commentary on drug wars, “Bad times are good times for guys like us.” Motivated only by the excess of money, they both clearly don’t have an understanding or empathy for the ruthless environment they’re taking advantage of, despite Westray going into detail about how cutthroat and depraved the Mexican cartels are. They're in over their heads, and have no conscience about the causalities they profit off of. Their knowledge of this world is only superficial, clouded by cheap and easy dollar signs. Also Westray offers, “whole nations are capable of love and hate and greed and envy … only [forgiveness is] reserved exclusively to the individual.” He references a Mickey Rourke movie (Body Heat maybe???) and tells an off-color joke: “You know why Jesus Christ wasn’t born in Mexico … they couldn’t find three wise men or a virgin.” Westray tells him that the cartels hate lawyers.
At a Texas prison, The Counselor visits one of his clients, Ruth (Rose Perez), whose son, The Green Hornet, has recently gone to jail for “speeding.” Additionally, the authorities took his $12,000 of cash. He agrees to take her son’s case for $400. She offers him a blowjob, but he informs her that she’d still owe him $380. When the septic tank truck driver approaches an inspection point on the I10, the agent flags him along. The Counselor has phone sex with Laura, adding, “Life is being in bed with you. Everything else is just waiting.”
Reiner introduces The Counselor to a club he plans to open. He tells him the story of his associate Peterson. The man’s cousin was in town and didn’t speak a lick of English and the guys convinced him to unknowingly ask a woman if he could eat her pussy. Surprisingly, he scores. Peterson decides to try the same thing with another woman, and her husband sends him to the hospital. The truck ends up at the Pump Masters Septic Tank Pumping Company parking yard. At a motorcycle boutique, a clerk must intervene when Wire Man (Sam Spruell), armed with a tape measure, walks onto a cordoned off dais displaying an expensive model like the one The Green Hornet rides.
 |
| Diaz ready for her closeup; Bardem: not so much |
In another scene Diaz will kill, Malkina attends confession. She’s a real card. The priest is not very accommodating and singles her out for not being Catholic, so she gives him the business, “YOU don’t carry a card around do you?” She also brings up other good points, “The only women who don’t come [to confession] are the ones who aren’t doing anything. So, you must get an unusual picture of women.” When she talks about having sex with her sister, the priest leaves the booth. In a border city, a man and girl, possibly a lip reader, watch The Green Hornet meet with another man at a diner. The man leaves the cyclist an item likely related to the septic tank. At a club, Reiner tells The Counselor about the traumatizing time Malkina fucked his car. “It was too gynecological to be sexy.” Malkina and Laura talk in her bedroom in the company of cheetahs.
Wire Man goes to precise efforts to properly set up a length of sharp industrial strength wire strewn across a rural highway tied to a post and his truck. He communicates with another man over a walkie-talkie concerning the coordinates of The Green Hornet. The motorcyclist drives into the wire and is subsequently beheaded. The man retrieves the helmet holding the Hornet’s noggin, as well as all of the materials he used to kill him, pulls his body into a ditch, and drives off. In prison, Ruth thinks about her son. Wire Man, along with another, break into the Septic Tank Company, and they steal the truck. The helmet, along with the head, will later be thrown out a window “at speed.”
 |
| Girl, don't let him use your phone! |
Westray calls The Counselor to let him know that there’s a problem. They meet the next day at the Coronado and Westray informs him that The Green Hornet has been decapitated and their Latin American people want to speak with The Counselor about the $20M shipment which disappeared. Westray says Ruth wants The Counselor dead. When the waitress Alexis (Paris Jefferson) asks him what he wants to drink, he asks for “hemlock.” The media is linking The Counselor to the murder and he has four days before the cartel come after him. Westray starts going on about snuff films to illustrate to The Counselor that he’s in deep shit. The Counselor seeks help from Reiner. Later, he warns Laura over a stranger’s phone that it’s imperative they keep a low profile.
In Texas, two guys pretending to be policemen pull over Wire Man and his passenger who are driving the septic truck. A shootout and chase ensues, killing one of the fake officers, Wire Man, and his passenger, and causing a leak in the sewage tank. The other fake officer fills his bag with artillery, ammo, and steals the billfold from one of the dead men. He fixes the hole in the septic tank with a tree branch and makes a call in Spanish, before taking off. In Juarez, two men in a black Escalade kidnap the woman who lent her phone to The Counselor. The Counselor calls Laura from a new cell phone at the airport agreeing to meet her on Wednesday, before dropping the device in the commode and flushing it. He meets with Ruth, who threatens his life.
 |
| Get out while you still can, Penélope |
The wounded man from the shootout visits a junkyard for assistance with fixing the bullet holes in the truck, as well as inside his body. A group of black Escalades corner Reiner while he’s driving his cheetahs around and kill him. Some teenagers rob him of his valuables as he lies dead in the street. The Counselor calls an unidentified person about Reiner’s whereabouts. He informs him, “If your description of a friend is someone who will die for you then you don’t have any friends.” The cheetahs pay a visit to a random suburban home. Things don’t end well. Men in black Escalades kidnap Laura at the airport. At a hotel, The Counselor asks a waiter to check the front desk for messages. An attractive woman picks up Westray at the airport.
In Juarez, The Counselor enlists the help of an abogado (attorney). He tells him that he is no longer hiding, “Now, I’m seeking.” He makes a call to Jefe (Rubén Blades from The Milagro Beanfield War) in El Paso for his assistance. “Where the bodies are buried in the desert is a certain world … where they are simply left in the street is another … you must acknowledge that this new world is, at last, the world. There is not some other world. It is not merely a … hiatus … You are a cross in the road and here you think to choose. But there is no choosing. There is only accepting … To prepare a place in our lives for the tragedies to come is an economy few wish to practice.” These are just a sampling of the nuanced words he shares with The Counselor, along with referencing the poet Antonio Machado, who spent his lifetime mourning the loss of his love. He takes the position of priest in a way. The Counselor seeks help that is no longer available to him; Jefe only offers what is left: kind and wise words to a man whose “world—the only one that matters—will be gone.” In a moment of desperation, he actually believed he deserved answers to his problems, and that someone would actually provide them.
A black weight-lifter helps Malkina find Silvia, one of the cheetahs. At an American garage, the septic tank gets split again, and men remove forty five-gallon steel drums (I know, the number is different from the beginning). Also in the tank is a dead Columbian. In Juarez, The Counselor marches with a group of people missing relatives, down from a street where a car has been shot up, and taped off by police. A buyer shows up at the American garage to purchase lots and lots of cocaine.
 |
| What carb face? |
At a border café, The Counselor quotes Semisonic’s “Closing Time” and mourns the vanished Laura. He uses a key to sleep in a building located in the slums. Westray hits on a blonde in the lobby of a high-class international hotel. It turns out she’s working for Malkina. A delivery boy brings The Counselor Laura’s snuff film. An assassin serves Westray with a bolito and takes off with his bag in a cab where Malkina is waiting for him. She sorts through the contents, pays the assassin and cabbie, and leaves. She meets with a young man named Lee and shares materials and information with him, and then offers him 500k for a computer job.
Medics court away Westray’s body. Laura’s body lies in a landfill. Malkina keeps Lee company as he works on his assignment. Her male cheetah chills in the Arizona wild. Months later, a pregnant Malkina visits a restaurant with an escort. They discuss her future plans, as well as the fact that the boy she’s carrying is The Counselor’s.
 |
| He still got it |
Script Review (spoilers)
The script was not easy to read, nor a fun experience. For starters, I’m lousy when it comes to movies set in the drug industry. I can’t follow the plot mechanics for shit, and when you throw in a cerebral writer like McCarthy into the mix, who implies a lot and doesn’t explain much, I’m like a kid in the forest who didn’t leave a trail of breadcrumbs. And, I guess because he’s McCarthy, he gets away with writing a script that isn’t in the traditional screenplay format. He even forewent using the courier font! Some of the pages are narrative only with no paragraph spacing. Like a McCarthy novel, the language is dense and ambiguous. It was maddeningly slow to plod through. And, the array of typos certainly didn’t speed things up! (Um, there were A LOT, but I guess he can get away with it.) Reading McCarthy is also tough on the emotions. His naked realism and suspicious nature is hard to swallow. He’s on record as saying “that the species can be improved in some way, that everyone could live in harmony, is a really dangerous idea.” Regardless of how true it is, I personally have difficulty getting through the day trying to reconcile that belief within my own liberal idealism. But, that's me talking through my rose-colored glasses pretending something is not there when it is.That being said, as much as I didn’t understand some elements, and was irritated by others unrelated to the actual story, while feeling altogether uneasy, I’d still constitute it as a great read. I found myself drawn into this amoral world of The Counselor. Some more astute beings may have seen what was to come with Malkina. But, even, then, there’s a tension in just how things will end up for The Counselor. I did not anticipate his outcome, and found it disturbingly poetic. It got what he deserved, but I felt really bad for him (oh my bleeding liberal heart be still already).
McCarthy is deliberately ambiguous with locales. While he specifies which countries some scenes take place, he’s not consistent. The choice gives the story a very globally inclusive feel for the 21st-century we now live in. “Their” problems are no longer “theirs.” "Their" problems are "ours," (reminds me of the YP/MP line from Boogie Nights) especially when the United States propels the demand for hard drugs, aided by those who see a way to make a killing financially over sick and unhealthy habits, with innocent death and heartbreak in its wake.. But, in this story, we only follow the greedy people fixated on money; the real victims ravaged by the ills of the drug cartel are intimated in the periphery. We can turn a blind eye, but if we overreach our hand in the till, the comeuppance is inevitable and we have no choice but to pay the price. Yes, the themes cover reaping what you sow, but it gets kind of depressing unless you’re able to detach yourself from McCarthy’s detachment.
While most of the identities of the main characters are nondescript, this is a film that centers around Mexico (as a conduit for Columbia) in its relationship to the U.S. Bardem and Cruz are technically from Spain, John Leguizamo Columbia, Diaz is half-Cuban, and Rosie Perez is of Puerto Rican descent. I don't criticize the producers for using the most commercially viable actors they could to cover "the Hispanic contingent," but I'm curious to see if there will be controversy regarding the gentrified racial/national casting choices.
 |
| Finally ... |
I haven’t been a huge Ridley Scott fan since anything he has done post-Thelma & Louise, a modern classic (as a sidenote, Diaz would make a brilliant Thelma). But, one might argue that he hasn’t had a screenplay as cool as this since the feminine action treatise. The characters of Malkina and then Laura stand in direct contrast to each other, and I’m interested in how women will respond to them. Both run around with greedy men who ultimately get in over their heads. Malkina is a woman who doesn’t get emotionally attached and can take care of herself. Laura subscribes to superstitions and places all of her faith in her religion and fiancée. Their independence or lack thereof couldn’t be any more different.
Although the playing fields have not been completely leveled, women in Western civilized countries are no longer trapped by the conventional married life. They're free to choose it if those are their wishes, but they also have a wide selection of options. Professional opportunities abound, and, if finances permit, men are no longer required for motherhood anymore than the next closest sperm bank. Malkina is a post-modern femme fatale: cold, heartless, and razor smart. But, she's also holding all the cards. She’s not Phyllis Dietrichson in Double Indemnity with few choices in life, who perishes in the end. She’s not Matty Walker in Body Heat, who prevails, but seducing a stupid, horny man who fell for her was the only hand she had to play. And, she’s not Catherine Tramell in Basic Instinct who was always one step ahead of the game, but, with the cops always on her tail. Malkina is Bridget Gregory in The Last Seduction on an international scale. But, she ain’t running, she’s calling the shots. She is the game.
Box Office Prospects
Diaz has a history of hits, most of them where she was a supporting MVP. It almost seems textbook that this movie should do well based on that alone, but that’s obviously not going to be the only factor. Michael Fassbender has been primed for a couple of years now for great success. While the X-Men franchise is certainly giving him exposure, he hasn’t carried a big-budget deal, yet. And, while he is the title character here, there is almost an ensemble feel to the venture, which should make for a nice segue into whenever he does actually have to headline a mainstream movie on his own, if he ever does. Scott’s box-office scorecard couldn’t be more capricious, though his international grosses almost always, to a tee, make back the original budget, regardless of domestic. The R-rated film won't have heavy mainstream action sequences like Wanted, nor is it audience-friendly like Traffic. While it's as graphic as a Quentin Tarantino film, it doesn’t carry with it a corresponding levity. I’m guesstimating its relentlessly dark themes preclude it from making anymore than The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, which was even more conventional narratively. The Counselor has more international stars with higher profile recognition than No Country, so for it to gross $75M domestic doesn’t seem like it will be a problem. But, as this film is entertaining as it is challenging, I do wonder just how much audiences will be put off by McCarthy’s misanthropy. I'd guess its domestic window to be $60 - $80M.
 |
| Will this be Her Year? |
Early Oscar Chances
(major spoilers)
There is plenty abuzz going on about Cameron Diaz already. And it makes complete sense. It’s a really great role; disarmingly comedic, it then becomes cold and unforgivingly sadistic. As much as people are talking about Diaz’s high prospects, many are still qualifying their anticipation. The collective wisdom is that Diaz might not have the talent to carry through. Now, granted, you can cite her turn and horrible accent in The Gangs of New York as Exhibit A and B (and throw in The Box as Exhibit C) as a cause for concern (I haven’t been able to bring myself to watch either movie). Okay, fine, I’ll give you that. Period is not her forte and neither are accents. She learned at least one of those lessons quickly and never went there again. We should also remember that Julia Roberts had to learn that lesson as well with Mary Reilly and Michael Collins in 1996 (costumed dramas and Irish brogues were not her thing, either). Now, Diaz may have not opened a series of hits on her name alone like Roberts, Reese Witherspoon, and Sandra Bullock, who all went on to win Oscars, but she had a commercial presence which exceeded most of her other peers, which got bolstered again in 2011 with Bad Teacher (where Diaz was simply gangbusters good), sold mainly on her name and hilarious charm.
She’s a Hollywood veteran, with almost twenty years in the business. Certainly, she’s not anywhere near the pedigree of Meryl Streep. But, that’s not exactly a disparagement. Talent comes in all shapes, sizes, and personalities. She’s an actress who has been underestimated and underappreciated for LONG time. As bubbly and generic as she might come across, the girl has skills and she ain’t as stupid as she lets on (which is why this part plays to her strengths). This may be the role that shows off what she has to offer, while giving her a little stretch, kind of like the aforementioned trio of America’s sweethearts (they worked within their wheelhouse while sticking their necks out just a little). And, it’s not like Oscar considers her an anathema because they never nominated her. She came closest in 1999 as Lott in Being John Malkovich, where the competition was fierce (and young), and she was edged out by her costar Catherine Keener. She did, however, score four Golden Globe nods in five consecutive seasons in the later 1990s/early 2000s (which, if you consider her brilliance in My Best Friend’s Wedding, could have been even longer). And, with such a pivotal role, would the producers take their chances on someone who wasn’t right for the part? I would think not.
That being said, the role is ultimately “villainous,” which may or may not work against her, and there is a sexual component that may turn off the AMPAS, which makes me think of Nicole Kidman’s weak chances for last year’s The Paperboy. (But Kidman's work was all sex, for the most part; with Malkina, it's mostly suggested.) As well, I wonder slightly about whether or not the filmmakers retain her character’s Argentinian origins, as she has struggled with accents in the past. And will there be category confusion come campaign time? Fassbender is the lead on most levels, outside of not being in every scene. But, bitch, she drives the narrative and has an influence in how everyone ends up! Comparing her chances to Bardem’s Anton Chigurh in No Country seem fair, if not logical. As far as the rest of the cast, I’d say Fassbender and Cruz have much smaller, but existent odds, depending on their performances.
Will the AMPAS go for the movie as a whole six years after No Country for Old Men? Like The Silence of the Lambs, the movie is one of those rare cool films that The Academy went for in a big way. No Country wasn’t a fluke, if you consider the talent involved, as well as it being original and respectable enough for them to honor, without looking bad for choosing something controversial and violent (because perception is so important to them, at least, in the moment; forget about legacy). I’m sure Ridley Scott won’t be copying the stylistic moves of the Coen brothers, and if he doesn't, the McCarthy tone is so distinct and similar, as well as the arid Southwestern setting, the “repetitiveness” of going down that graphic and cynical road again seems unlikely. Best Picture winner? I’m afraid AwardsCircuit will be wrong on this. Best Picture nominee? Possibly, as I’m more receptive to it as an outlier that may creep in. I don’t entirely trust Scott, but I can’t rightly guess if his chances bode worse or better than McCarthy’s (I’d err on the side of the screenwriter), as far as director/screenplay is concerned.
Other crew includes: composer Daniel Pemberton, Scott’s go-to film editor Pietro Scalia (Good Will Hunting, Gladiator, won for JFK and Black Hawk Down), cinematographer Dariusz Wolski (Pirates of the Caribbeanfranchise), production designer Arthur Max (Gladiator, American Gangster and six other Scott films, as well as two David Fincher films), costume designer Janty Yates (Gladiator and six other Scott films). Scott’s movies tend to get at least one nod here or there. Considering the opportunity to create an entirely different landscape than anything else he has done before, the production design would probably be the first likeliest to enter the Oscar conversation.
0 comments:
Post a Comment