Entertainment

Cameron Diaz Is Really Selling 'The Counselor'

by Kate Ward

The trailer for Ridley Scott's The Counselor begins with Michael Fassbender and Penelope Cruz frolicking in bed together. But it seems that's about the only happy image we'll see in the film, which is as far from a romantic comedy or drama as we'll ever see.

Partly, we know that because the movie was written by Cormac McCarthy, the man who brought us novels like No Country for Old Men and The Road. But we also know that because the trailer goes downhill quickly, pitting Fassbender — as a lawyer constantly cheating death after he gets involved with drug trafficking — against dangerous kingpins, dealers, and possibly even a cheetah?

Or is that cheetah some sort of metaphorical representation of Cameron Diaz's purring character, who not only boasts tattooed spots on her back, but also some of the trailer's most intriguing lines, like, "The slaughter to come is probably beyond our imagining." (How nice to see the actress finally flex the dramatic muscles that proved to be so promising in films like 2002's Gangs of New York and 2001's Vanilla Sky, in which Diaz was the only true highlight?)

But she's not the only reason to see the film, which also stars Cruz's real-life husband Javier Bardem and hits theaters Oct. 25. It will no doubt be interesting to see a McCarthy film that we don't know the ending to. Plus, Michael Fassbender. And Penelope Cruz. In Bed.

Image: 20th Century Fox