The Consultant review: Christoph Waltz raises hell in bonkers horror-comedy
No one does "genteel monster" quite like Christoph Waltz. That square jaw, the pleasant lilt of his clipped Germanic accent, those sea-green eyes leveling you with their piercing equanimity. This is an actor who was built to chill — be it as a Nazi, a wife-murderer, a besuited bounty hunter, or the guy who has a Hemsworth running for his life in a Quibi series. Now Waltz takes on the ultimate evil in The Consultant. The bonkers comedy-thriller from Tony Basgallop (Servant) burnishes the familiar deal-with-the-devil conceit with chipper, unapologetic cynicism and appealing performances from its trio of leads.
Adapted from Bentley Little's 2016 novel, The Consultant centers on CompWare, an LA-based mobile gaming company founded and run by the enigmatic wunderkind Sang Woo (Brian Yoon). When Woo is assassinated in his office by a gun-toting grade schooler (Henry Rhoades), the subsequent wave of bad press threatens to drive the already struggling company out of business.
Michael Desmond/Prime Video Brittany O'Grady and Nat Wolff in 'The Consultant'
Enter Regus Patoff (Waltz), who appears one day and informs the anxious staff that their late boss hired him to consult "on all matters of business." He immediately implements harsh changes, like calling employees into the office in the middle of the night and firing one (Michael Charles Vaccaro) because he doesn't like how he smells. Alarmed and increasingly curious, stoner coder Craig (Nat Wolff) and Woo's assistant Elaine (Brittany O'Grady) start sleuthing into Patoff's background, only to find that he's an internet ghost. The surveillance footage of his meeting with Woo, meanwhile, is… disturbing. The Consultant doesn't mess around with time-wasting vagaries; by the end of the first episode, Craig, Elaine and viewers know that Patoff isn't just strange, he's dangerous.
The question, of course, is whether the consultant is there to implement layoffs or stock up on souls. Patoff sets about extracting personal details from Craig and Elaine, pinpointing their desires — she's eager to climb the ladder; he wants someone to take his ideas seriously — and exploiting them as weaknesses. He fosters a gladiatorial atmosphere among the CompWare staff, encouraging and rewarding his employees' worst instincts. (When Patoff declares that a newly freed-up office will be given to "whoever wants it most," things get ugly.) Craig, who's converting to Catholicism to please his fiancée, Patti (Aimee Carrero), is haunted by the fear that something more sinister than cost-cutting is afoot. "I'm starting to have some really crazy thoughts in my head," he admits to his priest (Ed Amatrudo). "He's the boss. That's all he is. I shouldn't be taking him home, but he just lets himself in whenever he wants to."
Andrew Casey/Prime Video Christoph Waltz in 'The Consultant'
While Little's novel begins as a satire of office culture that slowly slides into horror, Basgallop's adaptation veers more blatantly supernatural. The symbolism can be heavy handed — a conspicuously red dress; a "Devil in Disguise" needle drop; several not-so-sly references to John 3:16 — and at times the theological intrigue overshadows The Consultant's themes of worker exploitation. But Basgallop, who regularly packs an hour's worth of supernatural suspense into under 30 minutes with Servant, keeps the story momentum humming over the eight half-hour episodes. And it helps that said story is marvelously weird and darkly funny, featuring an escaped circus elephant, a skeleton made of solid gold, a video game titled "Upskirt Jungle," along with other WTF-ery.
Waltz is, as previously noted, well-cast as the titular consultant. Though initially obsequious, Patoff immobilizes his targets with polite menace, which Waltz maintains with atypical restraint. O'Grady brings a wary longing to Elaine, whose grip on her moral compass loosens so gradually, she doesn't even notice when it drops to the ground. Wolff, a true standout in Peacock's otherwise-unremarkable Joe vs. Carole, is once again the heart of the operation. Craig is a sensitive soul wrapped in the armor of boyish beauty and smirky charm, and Wolff effects his transformation from slacker to reluctant savior with winning vulnerability.
"Where's the fun in a game without any strategy?" murmurs Craig. But Basgallop knows exactly where he's going with his tale, which builds to an unambiguous and daringly bleak conclusion. Here's some free advice for Amazon: Let this season stand alone, and then hire Basgallop & co. to make another show together. The Consultant has already given the devil his due. Grade: B+
The Consultant premieres Friday, Feb. 24 on Amazon Prime Video.
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