The Counselor (18)

Directed by Ridley Scott

2 Stars

There's a scene in The Counselor where our eponymous character is warned not to walk down a Mexican street because it's dangerous.

As can only be expected, he ignores the advice and comes across a demonstration against US border controls.

An apparently innocuous scene, as is the preparation of a fuel tanker to smuggle contraband across the border, with the workers laughing as the peons try the trek on foot.

Both sequences appear like a subtext standing in stark contrast to this convoluted thriller, especially since Ridley Scott's direction is based on a screenplay by Cormac McCarthy.

The former has a penchant for creating heroes as in Bladerunner and Gladiator, while the latter opts for characters exhibiting moral complexities in stories relying on people being forced to make choices, since that's part of life's unpredictability.

The Counselor opens with the sight of a white-sheeted bed, under which Michael Fassbender and Penelope Cruz discuss and perform sex as if they were innocents.

A little incongruous, given Fassbender's Shame and Crux's maturity under the tutelage of Pedro Almodovar.

Fassbender is The Counselor who works as a lawyer and wants to marry his ideal of perfection Laura (Cruz) and seal their vows with the purest diamond ring.

Rocks that big don't come cheap and he does a deal with Rainer, an eccentric drug dealer played with all the elan you might expect from Javier Barden looking like a circus clown.

His propensity is for providing a running commentary on the torture techniques and fiendish devices employed in the narrative.

He's suitably hooked up with Malkina (Cameron Diaz, relishing her role), a sociopathic femme-fatale who likes to flash her baubles and keep trained cheetahs to kill hares.

Her party-shocker is shagging a car, simply using her vulva as window washer, which leaves even Rainer gobsmacked.

He's obviously led a sheltered life.

They're two complementary odd-couples and in between we meet an assortment of weirdos with star-studded pedigrees like Brad Pitt, Bruno Ganz, Rosie Perez and Rueben Blades.

However, it matters not what actual scam is going down and who's doing what to whom, since the labyrinth-like plot - Pilgrim's Progress with consequences - is clearly designed to distract.

As Rainer says, "If you pursue this road that you've embarked on, you'll eventually come to a moral decision that will take you completely by surprise. One you didn't see coming at all."

The trouble is that after the plethora of double dealing, it all gets rather dull and unsurprising - with the possible exception of Brad Pitt's exit.

The moments of oblique social comment are a reminder that there's a reality behind the razzmatazz.

Otherwise, it really is pretentious tosh.