"I think that the truth has no temperature."
The Counsellor is an adult thriller that (unusually) starts with and shows the consequences of making a wrong choice rather than showing the actions leading up to it. Ridley Scott shows yet again that he can take any genre and make it look stunning on the big screen, and the five leads - Fassbender, Bardem, Cruz, Diaz and Pitt - are all as watchable as ever and act the heck out of the material. The actors are clearly relishing this dialogue-driven movie, thus providing the movie's strength and ultimately highlighting its main weakness. Much has been made of The Counsellor being Cormac McCarthy's first original screenplay, but unfortunately the dialogue is theatrically-stilted, the main theme (greed) is hammered home while others (notably sex and women) feel underformed, and the plot mechanics grind along with little subtlety. Nevertheless, Fassbender creates a compelling performance of a man whose life falls apart, and Cameron Diaz gets one of those rare roles that allow her to show her ability to great effect, Daniel Pemberton's score is a pleasing marriage of John Barry and Hans Zimmer's styles, and the 'catfish' story provides one of the funniest scenes of the year.
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