Ridley Scott’s The Counsellor opens with what initially appears to be a romantic image. Two lovers lie dormant in a bedroom, tenderly whispering to one another, their faces obscured by sheets. As the camera uncomfortably holds its gaze on the motionless figures, the couple slowly begin to resemble a pair of corpses, the white linen resting on top of them morphing into the kind of protective tarp you’d expect to find at a horrific crime scene.
One of these bodies belongs to the Counsellor (Michael Fassbender), a nameless criminal lawyer, and in just a few scenes he’ll propose to Laura (Penélope Cruz), the woman currently buried under the sheets next to him. The looming spectre of death felt in this chilling prologue will soon begin to haunt them for the rest of the movie; the result of a misguided decision the Counsellor makes to do business with the Mexican cartel through his drug dealer Reiner (Javier Bardem) and his business partner Westray (Brad Pitt). But for now, the lovers are completely fine. They are wrapped up in each other’s arms and nothing else in the world matters.
