Every few years, we’re treated to the perfect marriage of utterly generic material—usually in the guise of a revenge-style vigilante flick, sometimes with a twist or two thrown in—with a great, Oscar-caliber actor. The best example in recent years is Taken, of course, but The Brave One and Jack Reacher also fit comfortably into this category. The Equalizer, starring Denzel Washington, is firmly rooted in this tradition and the flick delivers exactly what its ad campaign has promised: Denzel stoically, unstoppably kicking butt for the betterment of all mankind.
The camera travels through Robert McCall’s (Washington) apartment as he goes about his evening routine in the film’s opening moments. A lone man in a tidy apartment filled with neatly arranged books, McCall’s fastidiousness shines through. He seems to own just one plate, one cup, one knife, one fork, cleaning them after each usage. Unable to sleep, each night he carefully folds a teabag into a napkin, strolls to the local diner, places the spine of his book on the edge of the table, moves his cutlery, and carefully unfolds the teabag as the diner’s owner delivers some hot water.
This is a man of precision, a man whose every action is calculated for maximum efficiency. It is odd to see this sort of man toting cement bags at a Home Depot-like store, enduring the wisecracks of smart aleck, teenaged coworkers. But he seems happy enough with his routine. And it’s telling that he only comes to life when that routine is violated, when he is forced to go to the hospital to see one of his fellow nighthawks.
The plight of Teri (Chloe Grace Moretz), a prostitute badly beaten by her Russian-mob-backed pimp, reminds Robert of what he is: a stone-cold killing machine. He makes quick work of the pimps, inspiring the enmity of a Putin-backed oligarch with his fingers in both licit and illicit trade in the United States. The Russian dispatches a Spetsnaz-trained psychopath named Teddy (Marton Csokas, who plays the Russian with an indeterminate, almost-English accent, for some reason) to protect his investments in America’s organized crime and make an example of Robert.
You can probably guess how that works out for all involved.
Director Antoine Fuqua is at his best when teasing out the tensions of doing what’s right and what’s legal, a theme he has tackled previously in Tears of the Sun and Shooter (and, in a roundabout sort of way, Training Day). There’s something primal and appealing about the scenario, about a man with the ability to right wrongs without having to worry about the strictures of the law. And there are few actors who radiate the sort of calm authority Washington does, the wry smile and arched eyebrow that suggests he knows he’s always in charge, regardless of how many thugs are in the room.
A pleasing meld of generic material and A-list star-power, The Equalizer is a bit long at 128 minutes. But who’s really going to complain about getting to hang out with Denzel Washington for longer than is, strictly speaking, necessary?