Man, The Equalizer was going very well through the first half. And then it unraveled. Denzel Washington (Training Day, Flight) was great, but this movie had many holes, most of which couldn’t have been avoided. Based on the television series of the same name. I was unaware that it even existed before the release of the film. This wouldn’t exactly be a show I would be watching when it aired between 1985-1989 (I was too busy watching shows like The Cosby Show, Family Ties, and Alf during that time). And I think I was offered a disservice by knowing nothing about the television show. It was inferred that those watching this movie had seen the television show, which was not the case. More important than the lack of knowledge of its lead character and how he got to be the way that he is would be the movie’s unevenness. How it starts is certainly not how it ends up. It’s an entertaining movie with Denzel taking out bad guys, but then again, so was home Alone with Macaulay Culkin doing the same.
Washington stars as Robert McCall. He is your regular run-of-a-mill employee at Home Mart (think Home Depot) in Boston. He’s likable and respected by all of his co-workers. Herein lies the first couple of problems. McCall has an incredible physical and mental skill set on display when he is in equalizer mode. Now I am one of the first to admit that money does not buy happiness, but I would suspect he could be making more than ten times what he is making at the Home Mart, a job that seems to require minimal mental and physical abilities. Couple that with the fact that he seems to have quite the long commute (including taking a train) to get to work. Now, if Home Mart is as similar to Home Depot as it appears, I would think that there would be a Home Mart much closer to his home, especially if he is as typical of an employee as he seems. Now that is neither here nor there but is food for fodder.
McCall seems to suffer from insomnia. The camera is flashing on the clock quite quickly in the first 15-20 minutes of the movie. He lives alone and doesn’t seem to have any meaningful relationships in his life (though, again, his colleagues at work love him). McCall passes his late hours of the night reading classic novels. He reads them at home or at his local diner, where he sits alone at the same window table, drinking tea (but not the diner’s tea…he brings his own tea pack from home and uses just the diner’s hot water). He has a healthy relationship with the diner’s owner because he’s more or less using his establishment as a library. Teri/Alina (Chloe Grace Moretz – Carrie, Hugo) is a frequent visitor at that time. She looks beautiful but appears uneasy. We learn that she is an aspiring singer who is currently sucked into the underbelly of organized prostitution. She hates her job but has no choice. She can’t just leave the profession as she is under contract with her pimp. When he sees that she has been smacked around by a client and then her pimp (she’s made into an example for the other girls to see), McCall decides to do something about it instead of minding his own business. And that’s where the movie turned for me. It went from a carefully thought-out drama/mystery to a violent action movie, one in which McCall attempts to take down the entire Boston-based Russian mafia (who controls the Russian escort ring) with just his hands.
Antoine Fuqua has directed some of my most enjoyable movies (Training Day, Tears of the Sun, King Arthur, Shooter). However, this wasn’t one of the ones that I will see more than this one time. He seemed meticulous with some of his storytelling and carefree about other parts. Even when McCall concentrates on the Teri/Alina situation, he’s still maintaining his job at Home Mart and equalizing lesser situations for those wronged. I would think that when you are mixing it up with the Russian mob that this would be something that requires your focus. While most of us would be scared out of our shirts, McCall doesn’t panic or show fear. He certainly knows when a situation is dangerous but understands if he calculates it correctly, he will be fine.
So the main problem with this movie is that McCall appears as your everyday man for the first 30 minutes or so of the film but then changes. There is nothing extraordinary about him. But then we learn that his mind and body are assets that any nation would spend a lot of money on. His ability to survey his surroundings instantly, remember everything, and take on 5+ men on his own using only his hands is quite the skill. And, yes, we have seen this in other movies too. The film to me that comes to mind is Jason Bourne in The Bourne Identity franchise. The difference between a movie like that and a film like The Equalizer is that we know the back story. In The Equalizer, we know none of that (maybe if we watched the television show, we would know more, but what about if we don’t know anything about the television show?). I like the idea of Robert McCall. I like that he is one of the good guys, but how did he get to be like this? How did he gain these skills, why is he working at Home Mart, and why can’t he sleep? Why does he look at his watch before he is about to engage in some physical altercation? We don’t know any of these things.
Moreover, this movie goes from being slightly (though I use that worm loosely) believable to one where the lead character is an impenetrable character who can never be defeated (think The Terminator). And as soon as that happens, it becomes less a drama/mystery/suspense movie and much more just an action movie. It’s almost as if there are two completely different halves to this movie that, when added together, do not make a whole. Instead, we have a film that has good intentions but ultimately is just a movie that turns into a violent film about revenge.
Plot 7/10
Character Development 6.5/10 (weak…Denzel is excellent, so the points for acting are higher, but I know nothing about why this character acts the way that he acts)
Character Chemistry 8/10
Acting 7.5/10
Screenplay 7/10
Directing 6/10
Cinematography 8.5/10
Sound 8/10
Hook and Reel 7.5/10
Universal Relevance 7/10 (you’d love to believe in the idea that there is someone out there evening the odds for those wronged)
73%
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