The Weekend Review: The Equalizer

In which I review a selection of last weekend's entertainment.

It seems like every major production company with money to spare is trying to make an authentic 80s action movie for the twenty-first century.  What started out as a seemingly bad joke with The Expendables has become an immensely popular movie trend.  The Last Stand, Escape Plan, Grudge Match and Red have all capitalized on the same thirty-year-old genre formula.  The latest entry into this cinematic vein - The Equalizer - is the first to not rely on nostalgic casting choices to cultivate an audience: choosing traditionally dramatic lead Denzel Washington over genre favorites like Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stalone.

Retired CIA operative Robert McCall thought that he had gotten out of the game for good, content to work at Home Mart, help a security trainee pass his qualification exam and read through "the 100 books you should read before you die."  But when his teenage friend Alina is nearly beaten to death by her pimp, he has no choice but to settle the score.  The man he kills, however, is no common pimp, but a high ranking member of the Russian mafia.  Now hunted by an ex-spetsnaz mob enforcer with everything to lose, McCall realizes that he will have to take down the Russian mafia if he is to ever return to his peaceful new life.

In a surprising turn for a blockbuster action movie, the first quarter of the film plays out like a dramatic character piece.  There are no car chases through the opening credits, no inside look into McCall's last black ops mission, not even a scene of him faking his own death.  Instead, we see him shaving at dawn as his alarm clock cries in vain from the other room.  We slowly go through his day with him, watching as he playfully deflects the younger employees' guesses about his previous line of work, coaching an overweight security trainee through healthy eating and exercise, solitary dinners at home and midnight runs to the local diner for some tea while he reads through his latest classic.  By the time McCall decides to kill Slavi in order to ensure Alina's safety, we know exactly what he is giving up in order to do so.

McCall and Alina in a local diner.

The Equalizer is the perfect permutation of the violent movies of the past.  It combines the "one man can make a difference" vigilantism of Death Wish, the police corruption and apparent mob omnipotence of The Departed and one-man army protagonist of Rambo, Die Hard and Dirty Harry.  The climax - a violent, guerrilla-style take-down of mafia hit men in booby trapped Home Mart - is a near-perfect adaptation of Jim's single-handed slaughter of the soldiers in 28 Days Later.

What the film loses in originality, however, it makes up for with its irreproachable execution.  While Denzel Washington is the only exceptional actor in the film, the rest of the cast provides the necessary support that allows him to carry the film.  Martin Csokas, who has made his fledgling career from supporting roles in larger action movies, provides a serviceable edge to the film's on-the-ground villain.  Chloe Grace Moretz gives the kind of earnest performance that her career thus far has lacked: toning down Carrie White's nervous energy into something far more intimate.

Although not without its issues - such as over-using of its lead, its needlessly grandiose scope and the entirely superfluous inclusion of the Plummers as spewers of exposition - The Equalizer is an entertaining callback to a time where men were men and action stars didn't wear spandex.  It's a refreshingly low-key take on the action genre: putting characters first and explosions second.  While not the best action movie ever, it is one that fans of the genre should never-the-less enjoy.  I give it a solid 7 out of 10.

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