The Marriage Counselor (The Play) (DVD)

The Counselor (known as The Counsellor in countries that use British English) is a 2013 crime thriller film directed by Ridley Scott and written by Cormac McCarthy. It stars Michael Fassbender as the eponymous Counselor as well as Penélope Cruz, Cameron Diaz, Javier Bardem and Brad Pitt. The film deals with themes such as greed, mortality, love, and trust in the context of the Mexican drug trade. The extremely violent and bloodthirsty activities of drug cartels are depicted as the Counselor, a high-level lawyer, gets involved in a drug deal around the troubled Ciudad Juarez, Mexico/Texas border area.

The Counselor was chosen as the closing film at the 2013 Morelia Film Festival and also played the Cork Film Festival. The film was theatrically released on October 25, 2013 and is dedicated to Scott s brother, Tony Scott, who died in 2012. It received mixed reviews and grossed $71 million worldwide against a budget of $25 million.

Plot

In Mexico, cocaine is packaged in barrels and concealed in a sewage truck, and driven across the border to the United States where it s stored at a sewage treatment plant.

A lawyer from Texas who is known only as The Counselor goes to Amsterdam to meet with a diamond dealer to purchase an engagement ring for his girlfriend, Laura. Returning to the United States, The Counselor attends a party back in Texas thrown by drug dealer Reiner and his girlfriend Malkina. He discusses an upcoming drug deal he is going in on with Reiner, which would be The Counselor s first. Their discussion ends with Reiner describing an execution device called the bolito which gradually strangles and decapitates the victim. Afterwards, at a dinner with Laura, The Counselor proposes to her and she accepts.

The Counselor meets with Westray, a business associate of Reiner s, to deliver his investment for the upcoming drug deal. Westray informs the Counselor of the deal s 4000-percent return rate, but cautions the Counselor about becoming involved, saying that Mexican cartels are merciless. Despite this, the Counselor remains outwardly confident and unconcerned. Following the conversation with Westray, The Counselor visits a prison inmate named Ruth, a court-appointed client of his who is on trial for murder. Ruth explains that her son is a biker who was recently arrested for speeding and cannot post bail. She asks the Counselor for help and he agrees to bail Ruth s son out for her as a favor.

Malkina senses an opportunity to undermine the Counselor s upcoming deal and to profit for herself. To that end, she employs the Wireman to help her steal the drugs. After discovering that the biker is working for the cartels and has plans to pick up a truck with a drug shipment, the Wireman executes a plan to steal the component needed to start the truck by decapitating the biker with a wire stretched across an empty desert road. With the component in his possession, the Wireman steals the truck containing the cocaine.

Learning of the theft, Westray meets with the Counselor to notify him of the biker s true identity, a valued drug cartel member known as the Green Hornet. He explains that the biker is now dead, with the cocaine also being stolen, bleakly intoning the Counselor s culpability in the eyes of the cartel. Westray says he is leaving town immediately and suggests the Counselor do the same. Westray explains that the cartel s ruthlessness extends to creating snuff films where kidnapping victims are filmed being decapitated. The Counselor makes an urgent call to Laura, arranging to meet her in another state, where he will explain the situation to her.

While transporting the drugs, the Wireman is pulled over by two cartel members pretending to be police officers. A gunfight ensues, resulting in the death of the Wireman, his accomplice, one of the cartel members, and an innocent bystander. The surviving cartel member repossesses the truck with the drugs and gets it delivered to its final destination. Reiner is accidentally killed by cartel members while they are attempting to capture him. The cartel then kidnaps Laura.

In a last-ditch effort, the Counselor contacts Jefe, a high-ranking cartel member, for suggestions on what to do next and to plead to spare Laura s life. Jefe begins speaking philosophically, citing the life and poetry of Antonio Machado to underline his advice. Jefe darkly and mordantly advises the Counselor to resign himself to his fate that was created by the choices he made long beforehand. He explains that despite the Counselor s willingness to exchange his life for Laura s, it is too late.

The Counselor remains in Mexico, defeated and in mourning. A package is slipped under the door of his hotel room and in it he finds a DVD with Hola! written on it. Realizing that the disc likely contains a snuff film of Laura sent by the cartel, he breaks down. In an unnamed location, Laura s headless body is dumped into a landfill.

Malkina s failed effort to steal the drugs does not deter her. She tracks Westray to London, where she hires a woman to seduce him and steal his bank codes. She then has accomplices steal Westray s laptop, and he is killed with the bolito device that Reiner had previously described. Malkina then meets her banker at a restaurant, coolly explaining how she wants her profits and accounts to be handled and plans to move to Hong Kong.

Cast

• Michael Fassbender as the Counselor
• Cameron Diaz as Malkina
• Javier Bardem as Reiner
• Penélope Cruz as Laura
• Brad Pitt as Westray
• Rosie Perez as Ruth
• Natalie Dormer as the Blonde
• Édgar Ramírez as the Priest
• Bruno Ganz as the Diamond Dealer
• Rubén Blades as Jefe
• Goran Višnjić as Michael
• Velibor Topić as the Sedan Man
• Toby Kebbell as Tony
• Emma Rigby as Tony s girlfriend
• John Leguizamo as Randy
• Dean Norris as the Buyer
• Richard Cabral as the Green Hornet , a biker who is Ruth s son
• Sam Spruell as the Wireman
• Alex Hafner as the Second Patrolman
• Andrea Deck as the Watching Girl

Literary references

In the second half of the film, Jefe recites directly from the poem Campos de Castilla by Spanish poet Antonio Machado. Caminante, no hay camino. Se hace camino al andar, which translates in its original context as: Wanderer, there is no road; the road is made as you go along. Jefe shares this line from the poem as well as details about Machado s reflections regarding the prospects of his own life after learning of his wife being diagnosed with terminal tuberculosis. Jefe concludes by telling the Counselor, You are the world you have created. And when you cease to exist, that world you have created will also cease to exist.

Production

Pre-production

On January 18, 2012, it was reported that novelist Cormac McCarthy had sold his first spec script, The Counselor, to Nick Wechsler, Steve Schwartz and Paula Mae Schwartz, who had previously produced the film adaptation of McCarthy s novel The Road. On January 31, it was reported that Ridley Scott was currently considering several directorial projects, but that there was a strong possibility that The Counselor would be his next film and his follow-up to Prometheus. On February 9, it was confirmed that Scott would direct. Scott also became a producer. Cormac McCarthy, Mark Huffam, Michael Schaefer and Michael Costigan are executive producers.

Filming

Principal photography began on July 27, 2012 in London. The film was also shot in Spain and the United States. On August 20, 2012, Scott halted production of the film due to his brother Tony s death. He canceled that week s shoot in order to travel to Los Angeles to be with his brother s family. Scott returned to London to resume production on September 3.

The film was dedicated to the memory of Tony Scott, and Matt Baker, the second assistant director on the film who had since died.

Design

Costume designer Janty Yates collaborated with Giorgio Armani on the film as a part of a new partnership between Armani and 20th Century Fox that also extends into retail and digital initiatives. Armani was enlisted to create the wardrobes for the characters portrayed by Michael Fassbender and Penélope Cruz. In addition to Armani, designer Paula Thomas also contributed to the film s wardrobe by dressing Cameron Diaz s character, Malkina, with roughly 15 different outfits. I read the script that I realized why called upon me, said Thomas. character has a lot of elements of a Thomas Wylde (her own design label) woman. bold, edgy, modern. She s about wanting to be seen, as opposed to blending into the background.

For Javier Bardem s character, Yates applied a widely colorful wardrobe that was mostly made up of pieces of Versace. As for Bardem s hair, the idea was the actor s own and inspired by film producer Brian Grazer s hairdo.

Music

The film score to The Counselor was composed by Daniel Pemberton. Pemberton recorded the score with a full orchestra at Abbey Road Studios in addition to integrating home-recorded guitar noises and textures. Ridley responds really well to interesting and unusual sounds, explained Pemberton on the composer-director relationship. So as a composer who likes making unusual sounds, that s exciting. It was daunting but he was great to work with and up for experimenting. He made the process a lot less scary than it should have been. A soundtrack album was released digitally on October 22 and in physical forms on November 11, 2013 by Milan Records.

Screenplay

• McCarthy, Cormac (June 10–17, 2013). Scenes of the crime . The New Yorker. 89 (17): 66–69.

Reception

Box office

The Counselor grossed $17 million in the United States and Canada, and $54 million in other territories, for a total of $71 million, against a production budget of $25 million.

Preliminary reports had The Counselor tracking for an $8–13 million debut in North America. The film opened to $3.2 million in 3,336 locations on Friday and opened at #4 in the box office with just a $7.8 million over the weekend.

Critical response

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 34% based on 221 reviews, with an average rating of 5/10. The site s critical consensus reads, The Counselor raises expectations with its talented cast and creative crew—then subverts them with a wordy and clumsy suspense thriller that s mercilessly short on suspense or thrills. On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 48 out of 100, based on 42 critics, indicating mixed or average reviews. A 2017 data analysis of Metacritic reviews by Gizmodo UK found The Counselor to be the second most critically divisive film of recent years. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of D on an A+ to F scale.

Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter gave a negative review, calling it not a very likable or gratifying film, adding that one is left with a very bleak ending and an only slightly less depressing sense of the waste of a lot of fine talent both behind and in front of the camera. Mark Kermode listed it as number two on his Ten Worst Films of 2013. Los Angeles Times critic Kenneth Turan stated, As cold, precise and soulless as the diamonds that figure briefly in its plot, The Counselor is an extremely unpleasant piece of business. Peter Debruge of Variety criticized Cormac McCarthy s script, saying that his first original script is nearly all dialogue, but it s a lousy story, ineptly constructed and rendered far too difficult to follow.

Conversely, Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film four stars out of four, saying, Director Ridley Scott and screenwriter Cormac McCarthy have fashioned a sexy, sometimes shockingly violent, literate and richly textured tale of the Shakespearean consequences of one man s irrevocable act of avarice and called it a bloody great time. In addition, Manohla Dargis of The New York Times gave it a rave review, stating that Mr. McCarthy appears to have never read a screenwriting manual in his life That s a compliment. Danny Leigh of the BBC programme Film 2013 praised the film, saying that the real star is the script. What this film really is is a Cormac McCarthy audiobook with visuals by Ridley Scott. It s black as night, engrossing and masterful. He also acclaimed the performances, particularly Diaz s, and said, with regard to the negative reviews, Movie history is littered with films that we all sneered at and we all laughed at and we all thought were terrible and the critics hated them and no-one went to see them, and then 40 years later they fetch up on programmes like this with everyone saying what a masterpiece!

Scott Foundas, critic for Variety, wrote a defense of the film titled Why The Counselor Is One of Ridley Scott s Best Films in which he compared it to John Boorman s Point Blank (1967) and the screenplay to the work of David Mamet, Harold Pinter, and Quentin Tarantino. Foundas writes, is bold and thrilling in ways that mainstream American movies rarely are, and its rejection suggests what little appetite there is for real daring at the multiplex nowadays. Filmmaker Guillermo del Toro also praised the film, stating that the film is a meditation of the illusory nature of normalcy and the devastation to come.

Accolades

Year	Group	Award	Result	Notes
2014	London Critics Circle Film Awards	British Actor of the Year	Nominated	Michael Fassbender
2014	MTV Movie Awards	Best WTF Moment	Nominated	Cameron Diaz

Condition

New

Actor

Darin Spencer, Joe Zizzo, John Winter, Lisa Mccree, Rodney Parnther, Tres A. Miah, Will D. Lucas

Publisher

Lionsgate

Published Date

2009

Age Group

Adult

Rating MPA

Not Rated

Recording Studio

Lionsgate

Format

DVD

Brand

Lionsgate

Amazon ASIN

B001JV5BC6

UPC / EAN

031398104667

Year

2013

ReleaseDate

2013-10-25

RuntimeMins

117

RuntimeStr

1h 57min

Awards

Awards, 5 wins & 3 nominations

Directors

Ridley Scott

Writers

Cormac McCarthy

Stars

Michael Fassbender, Penélope Cruz, Cameron Diaz

Produced by

Mark Albela, Michael Costigan, Mark Huffam, Teresa Kelly, Cormac McCarthy, Denise O'Dell, Mary Richards, Michael Schaefer, Paula Mae Schwartz, Steve Schwartz, Ridley Scott, Nick Wechsler

Music by

Daniel Pemberton

Cinematography by

Dariusz Wolski

Film Editing by

Pietro Scalia

Casting By

Nina Gold, Avy Kaufman

Production Design by

Arthur Max

Art Direction by

Alex Cameron, Alejandro Fernández, Oliver Hodge, Marc Homes, Ben Munro

Set Decoration by

Diane Kelly, Sonja Klaus

Costume Design by

Janty Yates

Makeup Department

Brian Best, Viola Colditz, Nathaniel De'Lineadeus, Polly Earnshaw, Tina Earnshaw, Nana Fischer, Carmen Fraile, Clarice Gill, Peter Hawkins, Martin Jago, Matthew MacMurray, Rick Marr, Waldo Mason, Lois McIntosh, Aisling Nairn, Conor O'Sullivan, Jane Oginsky, Tom Packwood, Amber Pitkin, Sangeet Prabhaker, Karen Purvis, Graham Riddell, Luca Saccuman, Maralyn Sherman, Alex Smith, Dave Stoneman, Henrik Svensson, Robert Trenton, Kentaro Yano, Delia Fraile Martín, Richard Glass, Chris Lyons, Yuraima Morcillo, Jemma Scott-Knox-Gore

Production Management

Mercedes Barbod, Yousaf Bokhari, Sara Desmond, Charlie Hayes, Leonardo Martínez, Salvador Yagüe, Stephen A. Marinaccio II

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director

Matthew Baker, Barney Hughes, Max Keene, Anna Maluenda, David Martínez, Emilio Martínez-Borso, Danny McGrath, Jairo Murray, Sirrix, Mary Jo Torres Cano, Sarah Jean Selway

Art Department

Rob Anderson, Gerry Atkinson, Ángeles Barraza, Angel Beleño, Carlos Bodega, John Botton, Daniel Brennan, Alan Brooker, Martin Brown, Martin Brown, Leigh Bryant, Dan Burke, Simon Campbell, Archie Campbell-Baldwin, Ricky Carter, Emilio Cañuelo, José Cañuelo, Federico del Cerro, Pepe Del Pino, C.J. Dempsey, Stephen Doyle, Andrew Edey, Peter Edge, Billy Edwards, Frederic Fabrega, Fabián Falco Forte, Sophie Farrah, Alberto Feito, Roberto Feito, Boris Fernández, Martyn Fowler, Colin Fox, Kim Frederiksen, Manuel García, James Gemmill, Felicity Hickson, Oliver Hodge, Esther Jiménez, Diane Kelly, Paul Kelly, Mark Kimber, Gary Lambert, Paul Langley, Jesús Leive, Elizabeth Loach, Francisco Martínez, Fabio Marulanda, Brian Maslin, Alice Mayhew, Mark McNeil, Angel Gil Moñino, Russell Oxley, Warren Parkinson, Tristan Peatfield, Óscar Romero, Rocio Sainz Herrero, Ryan Sinnott, Graham Stephenson, Juan Luis Toledo, Billy Troc, José Truchado, Les Ward, Tom Weaving, Terence Wells Jr., Lee Whitehead, Sarah Whittle, Rufus Wilkes, Carl Wilson, Terry Woods, Juan Javier Yubero Gambero, Luke Edwards, James Enright, Mark Smith

Sound Department

David Betancourt, Luke Brown, Chris Burdon, Peter Burgis, Doug Cooper, Nick Del-Molino, Mahesh Depala, David Díaz, Arthur Fenn, Michael Fentum, Glen Gathard, James Gibb, Peter Gleaves, Jeannine Guenther, Peter Hanson, Sue Harding, James Harrison, Simon Hayes, Robin Johnson, David Lucarelli, Joe Maher, Rhys Maitland-Jones, Dan Morgan, Jay Price, Brian Seagrave, Andy Shelley, Andy Stallabrass, John Steele, Jason Stevens, Jason Swanscott, Oliver Tarney, Rachael Tate, Mark Taylor, Derek Trigg, Darren Vega, Aitor Berenguer, Derek Casari, Mark DeSimone, Iñaki Díez, Judah Getz, James Hyde, Robert Karlsson, Nick Kray, Emmet O'Donnell, Mark Sheffield, John Soukup

Special Effects by

David Campos, Paul Clark, Pedro González, Mathew Horton, Mark Howard II, Stefano Pepin, Nick P. Phillips, Raúl Romanillos, Alan Senior, Mark Vanstone, Craig Leong

Visual Effects by

Mohammed Aseem, Fiorenza Bagnariol, Kishore Boloor, Clwyd Edwards, Julia Ferguson, Greg Fisher, Philip Greenlow, Dave Griffiths, Suresh Hari, Charley Henley, Shrikant Jain, Kodavali Ashok Kumar, S. Kumar, Thomas Langley, Lara Lom, Varun Malik, Vaibhav Marathe, M.S.M. Mirzhaa, Rajakanna Nagarajan, Satisha P.Y., Sriram Padmanabhan, Suneel Kumar Palla, Ravi Pareek, Balaji Parthiban, Tim Pounds-Cornish, Dnyandeep Pundkar, K.N. Rajakanna, Venkatesh Ramu, Satheesh Rangasamy, Sribalaji Santharam, Manikandan Sathyabalan, Simon Scott, Richard Stammers, Olivier Thibaut, Sreejith Venugopalan, Ben Walker, Benjamin Bratt, Sheldon Henry Castelino, Tom Coster, Stanley A. Dellimore, Rob Dunbar, Fathima Feminò, Reuben Firoozian, Jonathan Harden, Michael Harrison, Ganesh Lamkhade, Marta Mintenko, Jojan P M, Ben Perrott, Alexandre Prod'homme, Miguel Santana da Silva, P. Sriram, Jozef van Eenbergen

Stunts

Richard Bradshaw, Stuart Clark, Jonathan Cohen, Ricardo Cruz Jr., Zarene Dallas, Ben Dimmock, Levan Doran, Camino García, Andy Godbold, Gary Hoptrough, Rob Inch, Rowley Irlam, Gary Kane, Juan Antonio López, Andy Merchant, Jordi Nebot, Peter Pedrero, Ben Rackley, Curtis Rivers, Florian Robin, Douglas Robson, Diz Sharpe, Shane Steyn, Pablo Verdejo, Drew Waters, Zarene Dallas, Curtis Rivers

Camera and Electrical Department

Ben Appleton, Laurent Baticle, Anthony Benjamin, Lawrence Bewsher, Alex Bokhari, John Bowman, Kerry Brown, Emmet Cahill, Dominique Cheung, David Churchyard, Mark Clark, Ben Cozens, David Cozens, Jean Louis Delachaume, Mark Dempsey, Tobias Eedy, Perry Evans, Gabriele Filippelli, Kevin Fraser, Aaron Garcia Sampedro, Will Gardner, Will Gardner, Paul Garratt, Filippo Giansante, Stuart Godfrey, Leigh Gold, Alan Grosch, Graham Hall, Sacha Jones, Mark Jordan, Gary Lambert, Mary Lobb, Iain Lowe, Clive Mackey, David Marriott, Daniele Massaccesi, Carlos Melville, Jamie Mills, Ossa Mills, Julian Morson, Peter Olney, Mark Patten, Ricky Pattenden, James Perry, David Rist, Beau Scott, Ron Shane, Richard B. Shean, David Sinfield, Jim Smart, Paul Snell, Kat Spencer, Stefan Stankowski, Olly Tellett, Michael White, Paul Wood, George Worley, Clayton Young, Robin Brigham, Diego Campos, Roberto Campos, Kristin Davis, Lucía Forner Segarra, Peter Graf, Josh Greer, Aaron Keating, Shaun O'Dell, Sheridan O'Donnell, Dan Smith, Alex Swinfen, Nick Wall

Casting Department

Solomon Artistes, Andrés Cuenca, Ana Durá, Lauren Evans, Nuria González, Jon Goracy, Theo Park, Luis San Narciso, Sofía Siveroni, Antonia Vidal, Tonucha Vidal, Leeba Zakharov, Vanessa Baker, Adriana Gil

Costume and Wardrobe Department

Maria Aledo, Rebeca Bermúdez, Rob Brown, Andrea Cripps, Bruno de Santa, Johanna Garrad, Angela O. Ibáñez, Joe Kowalewski, María Manchado, Jessie Metcalf, Edgar Molinos, Vikki Morgan, Linda O'Reilly, Angela Ortuño, David Otzen, Leticia Palomares, Marina Pedreño, Cristina Sopeña, Clare Spragge, Amanda Trewin, Joanna Weaving, Teddy George-Poku, Mia Gray, Lauren Nicotera, Marcela Payà, Soizic Quentin de Coupigny, Laura Renouf, Chloe Reynolds, Maria Valls

Editorial Department

James Barham, Zoe Bowers, Marie Fernandes, David Gallegos, Emily Greenwood, Laurence Johnson, Patrick Malone, Tim Maxwell, Nick Monton, Stephen Nakamura, Gordon Pratt, Stefan Sonnenfeld, Laurent Treherne, Jonathan Collard, Peter Collins, Rob Farris, Neil Harrison, Jim Passon, Laura Pavone, Aurora Shannon

Location Management

Tom Bosanquet, Juan Antonio Clemente, Ben Firminger, James Grant, William Hunter Howell, Rosa Hoyas, Matt Jones, Sarah Kate Lewis, Merixell Lombana, Beth Melnick, Leigh Romero, Félix Rosell, Kevin Schulmeister, Julia Tomlinson, Lucy Williams, Michael Charske, Charlie Hopkins, Ali James, Jenni Lewis, Philip Lobban

Music Department

Darrell Alexander, John Barrett, Becky Bentham, Ian Berryman, Richard Bissill, Andrew Dudman, Rob Farrer, Catherine Grieves, Gareth Griffiths, Stephanie Honley, Erich Lee, Tony Lewis, Roger Linley, Rebecca Morellato, Patrick Savage, Pietro Scalia, Andrew Skeet, Jill Streater, Gabriella Swallow, Craig Wild, Thomas Cavanaugh, Danielle Diego, Ellen Ginsburg, Patrick Houlihan, Nick Reynolds, Andrew Townend

Script and Continuity Department

Annie Penn

Transportation Department

Ana Alcazár, Phil Allchin, Ramón Alonso, Carlos Anderez, Simao Braz Lopes, Dean Burtenshaw, Raul Castilla, Jacob Cena, Paul Clark, Andy Colquhoun, Elia Cuesta, Patricia de la Uz, Rob Dunbar, Amy Edwards, Richard Fábrega, Eli Gavete, Philip Gilmore, Oliver Hodge, Marek Kalawski, Craig Leighton, Vince Levins, David Lewis, Will Malkin, Lidia Martínez Arnaiz, Danny Mitchell, Paula Perez, Antonio Ramón, Michael D. Robertson, Lutz Schleisner, Melele Sánchez, Javier Alonso Cerdeiriña, Idoia Artxanko, Stewart Fannon, Frédéric François, Charlotte Graham, Simon Jones, Peter Mercer, Jordi Nebot, Helena Oliva, Francisco Rojo, David Rosenbaum, Sara Wolff

Additional Crew

Julie Adams, Juan Aledo, Jonathan Ame, Alan Ames, Paty Avila, Pip Ayers, Nic Benns, Samantha Black, Maï Boiron, Monique Brown, Ali Chamberlain, Charles Edwards, Aidan Elliott, Tina Ellis, Irene Esparza, Larry Eydmann, Verónica Fernández, Noel Francis, Alan Fry, Anthony L. Gilardi, Fiona Gilbert, Anna Golin, Matt Gregan, Daniel Hamill, Clair Hanson, Tarn Harper, Paul Hayes, Mar Henche, Daniel Hernández, Joe Hill, Elizabeth Himelstein, Richard Hooper, Yasmine Jade, Asia Jarzyna, Simon Jefferies, Carrie Johnson, Kelly Johnson-Beaven, Lisa Kater, Montse Lacruz Andreu, Borja Larrondo Álvarez, Enric Llopis, Mila Luengo, Hayley Lyon, Juan Antonio López, Anna Maluenda, Stacy Mann, Karin Mercurio, Honey Montazemi, Iris Mora, Bárbara Morelos-Zaragoza, Polly Nolan, Sylvia Nowick, Trish Pearce, Maggie Phelan, Teresa Pérez, Juanito Ramirez, Leticia Rhodes, Jordi Roca Agut, Federico Rozadillas, Nancy Ryan, Francisco Saz, Neville Shulman, Joss Skottowe, Stephen Smail, Matthews Street, Sarah Sullivan-Phelan, Bernadette Tanchauco, Richard Taylor, Kelly Taylor-Dias, Isaac Viejo, Ben Vokes, Lori Williams, Arjun Yadav, Aurora Yúfera, Erika Zinser, Philip Ball, Emily Eckert, Karim Ferrero, Connor Fisher, Scott Fisher, Raquel Haber, Kendra Mae Jones, Nazia Khan, Michael Koltes, Rick Lipton, Ali Moshref, Andrew Popplestone, Kevin Posnanski, Rob Sipson, Lesley Wise, Dave Witt

Thanks

Matthew Baker

Genres

Crime, Drama, Thriller

Companies

Fox 2000 Pictures, Scott Free Productions, Nick Wechsler Productions

Countries

UK, USA

Languages

English, Spanish, Dutch

ContentRating

R

ImDbRating

5.4

ImDb Rating Votes

101613

Metacritic Rating

48

Short Description

The Counselor (known as The Counsellor in countries that use British English) is a 2013 crime thriller film directed by Ridley Scott and written by Cormac McCarthy. It stars Michael Fassbender as the eponymous Counselor as well as Penélope Cruz, Cameron Diaz, Javier Bardem and Brad Pitt. The film deals with themes such as greed, mortality, love, and trust in the context of the Mexican drug trade. The extremely violent and bloodthirsty activities of drug cartels are depicted as the Counselor, a high-level lawyer, gets involved in a drug deal around the troubled Ciudad Juarez, Mexico/Texas border area.

The Counselor was chosen as the closing film at the 2013 Morelia Film Festival and also played the Cork Film Festival. The film was theatrically released on October 25, 2013 and is dedicated to Scott s brother, Tony Scott, who died in 2012. It received mixed reviews and grossed $71 million worldwide against a budget of $25 million.

Box Office Budget

$25,000,000 (estimated)

Box Office Opening Weekend USA

$7,842,930

Box Office Gross USA

$16,973,715

Box Office Cumulative Worldwide Gross

$71,009,334

Keywords

Amsterdam netherlands,drug smuggling,binoculars,severed head,no panties