Watching ‘The Counselor’ felt a lot like watching a Mamet play set in a high-end vodka commercial. Lots of pretty people, lots of high-end appliances and pool parties, and lots of talking about the metaphysics of crime and deceit.

I don’t say that to take anything away from the movie. I mean, who doesn’t want to imagine life as a really heady, dangerous liquor advertisement? Sounds pretty great to me.

The script was written by Cormac McCarthy, and it is generally true to his body of work – dark, verbose and ultimately disappointed in the human condition. It concerns a lawyer who involves himself in the drug trade on the Mexican border, against the advice of everyone who talks to him in the first reel. Things go wrong, and keep going wronger until the credits roll, because that is how Cormac McCarthy do.

The direction by Ridley Scott is well-suited to the story. He takes the noir of the screenplay and dresses it up in the oppressive sunshine of San Antonio and Ciudad Juarez. The collision of obscene wealth and obscene squalor is on display in a thousand interesting ways.

With the exception of a truly bizarre performance by Cameron Diaz, the cast is uniformly strong.

Recommended.