In The Equalizer, the life of a Russian mafia henchman is nasty, brutish, short, and often terminated at the sharp end of a gardening tool wielded by its 60-year old star, Denzel Washington. As a retired secret service operative who protects the helpless and punishes the wicked, Washington rivals Liam Neeson as the most badass sexagenarian in the movies.
The Equalizer is a vigilante thriller that appears to have little in common with the 1980s TV series it is based on, besides the name. Director Antoine Fuqua lets his film uncoil slowly, as we’re introduced to Washington’s Robert McCall in the guise of a reserved but well liked worker at a Boston hardware hypermarket.
This quiet man reads The Old Man and the Sea in his spare time, coaches a chubby co-worker (Johnny Skourtis) in healthy eating and exercise, and shares nuggets of Zen wisdom with young hooker Teri (Chloë Grace Moretz) at the diner where he hangs out at night. After a glacial first act, McCall is galvanised into action when Teri is savagely beaten by her pimp.
His choice to take up the mantle of Teri’s protector and avenger sets him in conflict with the Russian mob, and especially the vicious and urbane enforcer, Teddy (Marton Csokas). That clears the way for Washington to switch into full Man on Fire mode and spend the rest of the film on a rampage against armies of tattooed goons and sociopaths.
Reuniting with the director following his Oscar-winning part in Fuqua’s Training Day (2001), Washington’s conviction grounds the film even in its most preposterous moments. He captures the mental acuity that makes McCall truly dangerous, especially to those that would underestimate him based on his age and tranquil demeanour.
McCall is at once The A-Team, Creasy from Man on Fire, the popular guy at work, and an ascetic still grieving over the loss of his wife — disparate elements Washington brings together into a coherent character. Given that the film has a darker tone than Tom Cruise’s similarly themed Jack Reacher, it’s hard to imagine this otherwise so-so movie working without Washington’s performance.
Csokas’s smart and remorseless Teddy provides a worthy adversary for McCall. Moretz appears for only a few minutes of the film’s running time, and struggles to colour her character with much shading beyond the usual prostitute-trying-to-make-good clichés. There are nice turns for Melissa Leo and Bill Pullman in small supporting roles.
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Like Olympus Has Fallen — Fuqua’s last movie — The Equalizer feels like a throwback to the action films of the 1980s and early 1990s. Even if he is a little too fond of slow-motion shots, Fuqua makes a stylish film. His direction really shines in the cheerfully gruesome action sequences — they’re tense, muscular, inventive (wait till you see how McCall uses corkscrews and shot glasses), visceral, and have a spatial awareness that’s too rare in action filmmaking today.
It’s a pity, then, that the rest of the film doesn’t match up to the acting and the action. At 132 minutes, The Equalizer carries a little too much fat around its midriff. There are too many subplots slowing down the momentum, many of them absurd; there’s also the fact that it takes too long to get going in the first place. But once the film kicks into top gear, it provides a decent dose of high-adrenalin entertainment. — © 2014 NewsCentral Media