The Equalizer (2014)

There is a thoroughly ordinary-looking middle-aged man. Unable to sleep, he drinks tea at his regular diner at the same time each day, is kind to his coworkers, and reads through his books one careful page at a time. The Equalizer introduces a man who hides a formidable ability beneath the surface of this quiet daily life. And it watches how, when he witnesses injustice, he restores a broken balance in his own way.

What it’s about — A hardware-store clerk who pulls out a sealed ability again

Robert McCall (Denzel Washington) is a diligent clerk at a large hardware store. Tormented by insomnia, he passes the nights drinking tea at a diner, and his heart wavers when Teri (Chloë Grace Moretz), a young prostitute he comes to know there, is brutally beaten by the Russian mafia. Trying at first to resolve it politely with money and being refused, McCall pulls out again the ability from his past that he had long sealed away. His reckoning, begun against a single organization, gradually spreads into all-out war with a vast criminal network, and the organization sends a merciless fixer to stop him.

Direction — Stopped time, calculating objects into weapons

Antoine Fuqua’s direction lends the depiction of violence a distinctive aesthetic. Before entering a fight, McCall quickly scans the surrounding objects and calculates everything as a weapon, and the film emphasizes this moment with direction that makes time seem to stop. By this, his combat appears not as reckless brawling but as a coolly designed operation. Fuqua does not hide the brutality of the action, yet grants it a kind of restrained rhythm, drawing out tension and thrill at once.

That said, the structure of the story is conventional. The setup of a kindly weak victim, a cruel villain, and an invincible fixer standing between them is familiar. The hardware-store climax of the second half is visually impressive, but that the direction of the ending is predictable relatively early on remains a regret. Even so, Fuqua succeeds in clothing the genre film in a weighty atmosphere through the cold night scenes of the city and restrained music.

Performance — Denzel Washington, more menacing for his calm

Denzel Washington weightily holds up this familiar story. The McCall he plays never shows off. He is, in ordinary times, exceedingly gentle and considerate, but a man who, once resolved, moves without a moment’s hesitation. Washington renders the switch between these two faces almost entirely through the subtlest shifts of expression. Even in moments of violence a calm underlies his performance, making him all the more menacing. It is a case of an actor of depth, rather than a flashy action star, lending weight to the action genre.

Marton Csokas plays the cold fixer the organization sends, generating tension worthy of standing against McCall. Chloë Grace Moretz, though her screen time is short, persuasively provides the emotional trigger that sets McCall in motion. As simple as the character structure is, the actors’ presence matters, and they each do their part from their own place.

What the film says — Setting right the scale where the law cannot reach

The title The Equalizer carries the meaning of “one who restores balance.” McCall intervenes directly in places the law and institutions cannot reach, where the strong trample the weak, and rights the tilted scale. His actions, as private retribution, are certainly dangerous, but through him the film offers a kind of vicarious satisfaction for the helplessness ordinary people face. At the same time, the setup that McCall does not enjoy violence and in fact tried to leave it behind keeps us from forgetting the subtle tension between just intervention and violence.

Ratings & reception

The reception is broadly solid. The IMDb rating is 7.3 out of 10, drawing firm support as an action thriller, while the Rotten Tomatoes freshness score is 61 percent and the Metacritic score is 57 out of 100. Critics, while pointing to the familiarity of the story, praise Denzel Washington’s charisma and Fuqua’s stylish direction. The dominant assessment is that it is a work that creates a point of distinction through the actor’s strength within a familiar genre.

Verdict

The Equalizer does not tell a new story. But as the actor Denzel Washington breathes depth and weight into a familiar setup, he lifts what could have been an ordinary action film up a notch. Despite the weakness of a predictable arc, the restrained charisma and stylish direction hold the eye to the end. It is a ★4.0 work that securely guarantees the pleasures of the genre.

Recommended for

• Those who love action thrillers led by a protagonist of weighty charisma
• Those who enjoy Denzel Washington’s restrained performance
• Those who want a stylishly directed reckoning narrative