Director: Antoine Fuqua
Stars: Denzel Washington, Dakota Fanning, Andrea Scarduzio
It’s been five years since we last checked in with Denzel Washington’s stoically violent good samaritan Robert McCall; the former CIA man dedicated to meeting out judgement as he sees fit, while throwing the odd life lesson in for good measure. The Equalizer 2 was surprisingly durable (I had time for a revisit this week – add at least another point to my initial review); the more leisurely sections ultimately adding to our understanding and appreciation of McCall, setting him apart from so many Liam Neeson variants. It helps that Washington approaches the generic action movie material with as much sincerity and commitment as any of his more laudable, nakedly prestigious roles. Between them, he and this franchise’s consistent director Antoine Fuqua have come close to elevating some pretty rote narratives.
This third entry catches up with McCall in Sicily, in the thick of it having stormed a vineyard for reasons that’ll only become clear later. He exits this cold open with a bullet in the back that he naturally survives, but it may have been more humane to put him out of his misery rather than subject us to the dour, meandering journey ahead, a bland amble pocked with depressingly gratuitous violence. Whatever elevation occurred previously is absent in this instalment, which brings the series down to earth with a dreary thud.
The change of scenery is intended as a breath of fresh air. The cliffside community of Altomonte is beautifully observed by Fuqua, who ought to receive a gift basket from the Italian tourist board. It is here that McCall is nursed to health by aging doctor Enzo Arisio (Remo Girone). The cane McCall carries throughout the first half of the picture only accentuates the sense that his best days are finally behind him. But of course violence finds him even as he slowly engenders some semblance of inner peace.
Screenwriter Richard Went fashions a bare bones Poliziotteschi that tilts lazily toward stereotypes (there’s literally a scene of henchmen standing around eating spaghetti) as McCall is inexorably drawn into a grudge match with mafiosos masquerading as terrorist drug dealers (because just drug dealers isn’t enough). But where previously the material afforded Washington opportunities to flex, here such moments lack electricity. He’s happier arranging napkins at café tables. Just about charming enough but hardly gripping.
When the violence does come it packs a punch, but mostly of the fast and mean variety. McCall is asked early on if he’s a good or a bad man. The Equalizer 3 more commonly errs toward the latter, in spite of its bland efforts to show another side to the coin. The most effective and memorable section of the film is ultimately the most damning of him, as he patiently stalks a dying adversary for minutes on end just to be there at the moment of death. Here McCall seems to become Death itself. After this, scenes of him pleasantly smiling at attractive waitress Aminah (Gaia Scodellaro) feel tainted. McCall is at his least knowable in this entry. A cipher for American self-righteousness overseas.
Speaking of which, its equally (sorry) sad to report that Dakota Fanning’s plucky young CIA agent Collins never quite gets her opportunity to shine, either, aside from an unusually playful interaction with McCall mid-picture. The promise of this scene is never really capitalised upon. Ultimately she’s just another object for McCall’s often arbitrary benevolence.
If intended as the capper for a trilogy, The Equalizer 3 lacks both definition and a sense of resolution for a character who seems only to have retreated from us this time. A limp aside that feels, in the end, like more of a bad vacation.
The Lost Highway Hotel 