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Plot |
Robert McCall (Denzel Washington) is in the process of getting over his wife’s death. He deals with it by be productive working and an avid reading. Sometimes when he cannot read at home he takes his books to the local diner. He is well known to everyone there. Teri (Chloe Grace Moretz) makes it a practice to stop by the diner to order something most nights and she would routinely chat with him. Teri is a prostitute who works for Russian Mobsters. One night one of the Mobsters put Teri into the hospital. That is when McCall gets involved. He tries to get Teri released from her contract and be given her freedom by visiting these Russian at their place of business. There were five of them in the room. The boss there was hostile at first and then didn’t feel like giving in so McCall decided to lock the door and put an end to all their lives. But these guys answered to another boss who in turn worked for a more powerful boss. The next boss up the food chain, Teddy (Marton Csokas) comes to town to pick up all the pieces and is ultimately wanting to find McCall who has gone to great lengths to remain hidden. |
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Character Development |
Robert McCall is a tough nut to crack. Not much is really known about him or who he was nor do we know anything about his other relationships, including much of anything about his dead wife. This movie is really plot driven and there is not a lot of character development. |
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Acting |
There are some solid well meaning characters portrayed through the lead class, basically anyone with a speaking role, yet all the truly great scenes were between Robert McCall and Teri or between Robert McCall and Teddy. Right before a big showdown McCall and Teddy both give their big speeches, which were impressive. The acting wasn’t wonderful, but it was highly believable. |
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Overview |
This picture looks like it is a well-made over the top revenge film, but it is more in the line of a setting things right for the other characters type of story. It looks like this film was based on the TV show of the same name that was released in the ‘80s. According to IMDB the TV creator got a movie credit. The action and violence in this picture is highly realistic and often brutal. Robert McCall is not the type of guy to go in locked and loaded and blaze away. He is more like to pick up weapons off his targets and make do with what they have lying around like corkscrews or even a shot glass. He is pretty much deadly with anything. I was reminded of “Man on Fire” (2004) when I was watching this, another Denzel film with a pretty and young, white girl in trouble with the same determination from the protagonist. Still I recommend “The Equalizer”. The story continually builds upon itself slowly revealing the larger scope of our hero’s world and the director was very mindful of his spaces and was careful where objects were placed and shown. I was pleasantly surprised to keep finding things slide into place in front of the camera. But the love of battle was not neglected. The fight scenes used elaborate setups in editing where extreme close ups of the protagonist’s eye would show a reflection of the room, mixed in with half a dozen of cutaway shots this was graphically brilliant in its imagination and ever so off-putting in its gory nature. |
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