Revenge is sweet for Washington’s blue-collar hero
You won’t usually find Denzel Washington in a movie sequel. He doesn’t do them. Something about not wanting to repeat himself. So there must be something special indeed for him to break his own rule for The Equalizer 2.
Fans of the first film will instantly know why Washington is drawn to the character of Robert McCall, a quiet, middle-aged retired special-ops agent who fiercely believes in justice, likes to help others and dispenses the occasional killing for those deserving.
“We all have to pay for our sins,” he tells a group of very bad guys in the new, highly satisfying edition, before vowing to hunt each one dead. His only regret is that he can kill them only once.
The Equalizer 2 reconnects many of the people behind the 2014 debut alongside the alwaysvital Washington — Antoine Fuqua returns to direct, as does writer Richard Wenk, and actors Bill Pullman and Melissa Leo.
McCall first appeared in the mid-1980s on TV with Edward Woodward playing him as a bit of an English dandy. In the film series, Washington plays McCall as a tad obsessive-compulsive, but not consistently. He’s the kind of guy who brings his own tea bag to a restaurant in a neatly folded napkin and arranges the cutlery just so. But, when prompted, his vision suddenly becomes hyperclear and he meticulously preplans every step in taking down a room of thugs, often without a gun. He’s like Monk crossed with Sherlock Holmes.
In the first film, a hooker with a heart of gold pulls McCall out of retirement when she is badly beaten by her pimp. By the end, McCall has blown up most of Boston’s waterfront, exposed a nest of corrupt local cops and systematically executed every member of a Russian gang, even going to Moscow to finish the job.
The second film takes place some time later, with McCall now a Lyft driver, selectively helping people he encounters. He’s kind to old people (a Holocaust survivor, for extra depth) and little kids, who adore him. He mentors a troubled teenager (Ashton Sanders), hoping to steer him away from drug dealing and toward art school. Few people could pull off this cheesy sainthood like Washington, oozing charisma and self-assured masculinity.
When a group of smarmy, cocky Wall Street types abuse an intern during a coke-fuelled party, Washington drives her to the hospital, then returns to wreak vengeance, slicing one dude with his own luxury credit card and then taunting his bleeding victims with “I expect a five-star rating.” It takes him a scant 29 seconds to destroy the room full of rich snobs — he times it, naturally.
The film confusingly toggles through various initial threads before landing on the main one — someone crucial to McCall’s murky past is murdered in Brussels and that reveals a barrel of bad government apples. The film thus strays far from its roots as a vehicle for McCall to be the avenging angel for a needy stranger. But we get to see McCall solve the crime from his Boston apartment by putting himself in the crime scene and then avenge the death. Oh, and there’s also a hurricane crashing up the East coast, timed for the climax.
Fuqua is a lyrical director who directed Washington to an Oscar in Training Day. He’s not afraid to spend time in the still darkness with McCall and likes to focus on small moody elements, such as rain hitting the gutters. But he can deliver red meat. A sequence in which McCall fights off a passenger in the back seat of his car is a mini-masterpiece of taut, sinewy direction.
Equalizer 2 is a guilty pleasure for anyone who enjoys that oldschool, blue-collar American chivalric hero with a dark past. He’s the kind of guy who wears a knit polo to a showdown with four heavily armed tactical fighters, and reads great literature to honour his beloved dead wife.
He’s cool, with moral clarity and he’s three moves ahead of everyone. No wonder he’s such a welcome sight in 2018 America and no wonder Washington wanted another go-around.