by Peter O'Connell
The Equalizer. Running time: 132 mins. Released: Sept. 26. 2014. Rated: R for strong bloody violence and language throughout, including some sexual references
The Equalizer TV series of the 1980s, set in New York City, featured McCall, a suave former intelligence operative (played by British actor Edward Woodward) who helped people who had the odds against them. In this cinematic reworking, McCall (Denzel Washington) at first seems to be simply a quiet widower in Boston, who works at a Home Depot-type store, is a vegetarian, has mild obsessive-compulsive disorder and reads classic novels in all-night diners. His actual past, however, is quite different, as we learn when he decides to avenge the brutalization of a young prostitute (Chloe Grace Moretz) at the hands of the Russian mob, which is allied with corrupt cops in an effort to take over the rackets in part of Boston from Irish-American gangsters.
Like a man on fire, McCall wages war relentlessly on the Russians, whose main boss is played—wonderfully--by Marton Csokas, a Kevin Spacey look-alike. One of Washington's great traits as an actor is a kind of commanding stillness. Csokas, in contrast, continually chews up the scenery. Having the two actors in the same movie is quite entertaining.
McCall doesn't like to use a gun but is very adept at using whatever is at hand, including corkscrews, to even things up, as we see in the amazing scene when McCall first goes into the office of the Russian mob. And in the climactic battle in the Home Depot-type store, McCall finds plenty of things at hand to use! The full “Equalizer” concept, however, doesn't come into play until the very end. We can expect further installments of this franchise as Washington joins Liam Neeson and others in the currently popular ranks of mature action heroes.
The movie is directed by Antoine Fuqua, who helmed Training Day, which brought Washington an Oscar. Film fans also will enjoy the connections between this movie and Washington's earlier turn as an avenger of a young girl in Man on Fire and the similarities of the Chloe Grace Moretz character to the Jodie Foster character in the Martin Scorsese classic Taxi Driver.
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