Review – The Counselor

★☆☆☆☆

Typecasting is the bane of most actors and what rings the cash register. Avid fans want to see their favorite actor doing the same type of character they fell in love with. Not every actor falls into the typecasting spider trap, but the ones who do seem to not realize the reason they did is that they created true magic in a role and fans responded. Actors can sometimes disappear into a role. The movie becomes magic, but we don’t notice them. I loved “Gangs of New York” but until I saw it in Cameron Diaz’s filmogrophy, I never knew she was in it. She disappeared into the role and fully became her character.

For me The Counselor had the weird kind of feeling “Full Frontal” had. That was an artsy movie within a movie which had the feeling it was an experiment a group of successful actors simply wanted to try. The Counselor didn’t feel like it was made for a movie audience. Felt rather more like it was made for the movie industry to use in some kind of acting/film making class.

The Holiday

I realize that Hollywood is all about funding comic book type movies with super hot bad ass chicks in them these days, but for me, “The Holiday” is one of the best movies Cameron has ever made. True, for a straight guy any movie Cameron wishes to appear mostly naked in is a serious appeal, but having seen her in so many comedies where she truly shined, it was difficult for me to buy her in this role.

The Failure

There can be no doubt that any male who hadn’t ever seen Cameron in any other role would have been hormonally blown away by her role in The Counselor, but actually seeing her in this role kind of took the magic away. It didn’t help that the plot was just kind of scattered all over. She has certainly done other shoot-em-up movies with great success. The movie “Knight and Day” comes to mind. I guess for me, what failed here was the movie didn’t typecast Cameron in the kind of role myself and so many others like to see her in.

Latka

Yes, I hear all of the time in actor interviews that they wish to “expand their reach” or “grow in their art” but sometimes it just doesn’t work. I mean, if Cameron’s real motivation in doing this movie is proving to the world she will be Uber hot until the end of time she certainly achieved that. No human having seen this film could argue with it. But part of me could not help think about Latka.

For those too young to remember, Latka was a character on “Taxi” played by Andy Kaufman. Fans around the world fell in love with Latka. Whenever he appeared anywhere people just wanted him to be Latka. Had he chosen to ride it out he could have had an amazingly fat bank account, but, instead he wanted to grow and do other things. Instead of a bankable act, he became something of a side show and died all too soon.

Summary

If you are in the mood for what feels like an experimental movie along the lines of “Full Frontal” then you should put this movie on your rental list. Should you want to see Cameron in the role of a dominant sex minx then you should add this movie to your list. If you are looking for a movie with a plot you can follow which appears to have some actual destination or purpose, then skip this film.

For more movie rental ideas please see list one and list two.