A Good Deal Gone Wrong: The Counselor

Ridley Scott's The Counselor made waves with it's unusual storytelling and it's powerhouse line-up of Michael Fassbender, Brad Pitt, Javier Bardem, Penélope Cruz, and Cameron Diaz when it hit theaters a couple of weeks ago. The doesn't give you any premise or base to go off of, you have to piece together what's going on as the film progresses. But for the sake of an understanding, I'll try to explain some basis here. Michael Fassbender, a lawyer, becomes involved in a drug trafficking scheme with Javier Bardem and Brad Pitt. Michael wants to settle down with his newfound love Penélope Cruz, but the deal goes bad and he's suddenly in over his head. The film's got some great cinematography and a nice plot, but its a film that requires your full attention. If you miss something, you might not get what's going on with one character for the rest of the movie. I did feel there were some unnecessary scenes in the movie that I really didn't need the visuals of. 

There's a scene that Javier Bardem describes while talking about Cameron Diaz, and, well...let's just say I would have been better off without seeing it and just hearing it. But, overall the movie did a great job of turning something almost minimal in plot into a great story simply by focusing on the characters and how they react to the situation. And, let's be honest, Michael Fassbender is just awesome. I mean, look at 'em.