The Equalizer: Intense Denzel all the way

THE EQUALIZER
Staring: Denzel Washington, Marton Csokas, Chloë Grace Moretz, David Harbour, Bill Pullman, Melissa Leo
Rated: 6/10
Denzel Washington makes an edgy comeback in The Equalizer, though one must say that this is a tad different from the roles he has done thus far. But then, Denzel excels in being different and this one is no exception. A very silent one-man killing machine for a cause, he is a tantalisingly lithe assassin and a man of very few words — so few that you can count his dialogues in the film even though 95 per cent of the frames are centred on him and his eyes.
An insomniac and an agency guy who has engineered to vanish from the face of Earth, declared dead to the world, he lives like a loner, spending his insomniac nights at a neighbourhood coffee shop reading his books. Till, of course, he comes across a teenaged Russian hooker who is being tortured by her pimp. You then come to know for sure what you suspected all through —this loner has a heart of gold and he will go any length to save the cause — this time, the cause being the saving of this and other girls like her. Along the way also comes the much bigger task of cleaning the system, ending a cartel and blowing the lid on dirty money ops on the east coast of the US.
Denzel keeps it simple — intense and no-nonsense, and that’s the beauty of this edgy film. The plot is neither great now unique. It’s just that the director so overtly worships the histrionic abilities of Denzel that he keeps the film alive through close-ups of his face, translating the tsunami of emotions going through him via his eyes  and, of course, the deadly silence treatment he gives you.
In short, it’s all about Denzel here and he does not disappoint. Though fixated on him, a word must go to Marton Csokas who plays the villain, and holds you in thrall despite the towering Denzel.

Source: Sunday Pioneer, 23 November, 2014

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Nil Battey Sannata: Endearing, real and simple

Cast :  Swara Bhaskar, Ratna Pathak Shah, Pankaj Tripathi Rated :  8/10 Nil Battey Sannata is a confusing title but an endearing, simple, gentle and real film. Besides, the title confuses only till Swara Bhaskar as Chanda explains it to you with endearing simplicity much ahead in the movie. It literally means zero understanding and zero marks — in her and her daughter’s case, in Mathematics. But this one is not just about the mind-boggling numbers that have become the bane of students and parents alike. It is about the maths, algebra and geometry of life itself — an equation that director Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari puts on the blackboard in an engaging, simplified format. Nil Battey Sannata  is a film sitting on a very real firmament, a very you-and-me story about the in-your-face problems that everyone encounters. In here, it is about misrani  (cook) Chanda and her full of life but anti-studies daughter Apeksha Sahay’s daily churn. Thankfully, it is not the drudg...
Read more

Criminal: Arresting memory transplant

Cast : Kevin Costner, Gary Oldman, Tommy Lee Jones, Ryan Reynolds, Jordi Mollà Rated : 6/10 Big names, big imagination and good execution make this memory transplant thriller a good one to be with, especially with Kevin Costner doing a pretty good job with a character he has never played – that of an emotionless, incarcerated, brutal killer in whose brain a do-good, wife and daughter loving dead CIA’s agent’s (Ryan Reynolds) remembrances are inserted for a trail that is important for the organisation. The underdone role has been handled well by Costner, much like a successful experiment. As he gets acquainted with emotions of love, caring and affection that have been alien to him, he starts turning from a monster to a human being but the director does well to not completely erase his original personality. So, there is a mix and match, there is brutal violence as also gentle gestures, like battering a man to death in a car hijack and saving a hair brush for the little one. The f...
Read more

Daas Dev

Image
*ing: Rahul Bhat, Richa Chadda, Aditi Rao Hydari, Saurabh Shukla, Vineet Kumar Singh, Dilip Tahil, Anurag Kashyap Rated: 7/10 If there is Devdas, Hamlet and Sudhir Mishra embedded in the film, would it not mean that there are lofty ambitions that the movie and its maker savour? Daas Dev is built up wantonly on these there distinctly different pillars and tries to find a balance despite the vast distance of genres that it straddles and moulds. The delightful thing about the film, however, is that it does not take these names in vain and using “inspirational value” from all the three concocts a syrupy political thriller that is high on energy, engaging and never out of sequence. That is Mishra’s cinematic acumen but also the over-confidence of pulling it through at play. Having said that, the old world and simplistic Sharat Chandra may turn in his grave at this interpretation of his superhero of doom Devdas who has, incidentally, seen close to 15 incarnations on the Indian s...
Read more