Denzel Washington and director Antoine Fuqua conclude their trilogy in style, with a final chapter that returns to the roots of the first film, while also delivering a fresh take on the formula.

Premise: After a confrontation with a cyber-criminal in Italy, Robert McCall (Denzel Washington) finds himself questioning the morality of his life of violence. But his brutal skills are called for again when the closeknit community of the small Italian fishing town where he is staying is threatened by Mafia enforcers.

Review:

I really enjoyed the 2014 remake of 80s’ TV show The Equalizer, thanks largely to Denzel Washington’s multifaceted performance as Robert McCall – a man trying to live a peaceful life to make up for a history of violence – and the pulpy tone struck by director Antoine Fuqua and writer Richard Wenk. All three of them returned for 2018’s The Equalizer 2, but for me, the sequel wasn’t nearly as good as the original – primarily (in my view) because it lost sight of the heart of the character, namely that Robert McCall is a man who helps those with nowhere to turn when the odds are against them. There were a couple of interesting ‘side missions’ in the sequel where McCall anonymously helped strangers in need (including the child abduction case in the entertaining pre-title sequence), but the main plot involved a much more personal (and straightforward) revenge story centred around the killers of McCall’s friend.

Thankfully, The Equalizer 3 returns to the core of the central premise, with McCall once again fighting for the downtrodden, rather than on a personal mission of vengeance. Denzel Washington does a great job again of portraying the inner conflict in McCall, between the part of him that wants to turn his back on violence (as he promised his wife he would), and the part of him who can’t simply walk away from someone in need. After one of his acts of empathy brings him to a town on the Amalfi Coast in Italy, McCall finally finds a measure of peace within the small community – until he sees one of the shop-owners being shaken down by an enforcer for the local Camorra criminal clan.

“…it’s McCall’s inner conflict & his reluctance to resort to violence which makes his character so engaging…”

Just as in the first two films, when McCall unleashes his repressed darker side, the violence is brutal and shocking – but somehow Antoine Fuqua manages to find the right balance so that although the action sequences are still entertaining, they also make the audience question their own attitudes towards violence. In one early scene, the audience sees a distressing crime scene showing the aftermath of a horrifically violent attack … only to then discover the McCall himself was the perpetrator. Of course, the ‘victims’ are always evil men themselves, but the film still invites the audience to question the morality of McCall’s extreme actions – just as the character does himself.

It’s McCall’s inner conflict and his reluctance to resort to violence which makes his character so engaging – so when he does have to use his special skills, there are no gratuitously glib one-liners, and instead, his disappointment at having to become someone that he doesn’t want to become is palpable. The fact that he always tries to give the bad guys an opportunity to do the right thing (which they never take) is one of the defining characteristics of the character (nicely encapsulated in Melissa Leo’s line in the first film: “He didn't come for help. He came for permission”).

“…there’s a thrill seeing Denzel Washington & Dakota Fanning on screen together again after almost 20 years…”

Given its Italian setting, the supporting cast in The Equalizer 3 are almost entirely Italian character actors who are unlikely to be familiar to Hollywood audiences – but the cast bring an authenticity to the community that probably would have been lacking otherwise. The film was shot on location in Italy, and it is gorgeous to look at, capturing the atmosphere and spirit of the country in a way that shooting on a soundstage can’t replicate.

The most recognisable cast member other than Denzel Washington is Dakota Fanning, who’s reunited with Denzel after their memorable pairing in 2004’s Man on Fire. Dakota Fanning plays Emma Collins, a CIA analyst investigating international criminal financing who becomes involved in McCall’s activities, and as a big fan of their earlier film together (in which Dakota Fanning gives one of my all-time favourite performances from a child actor), I did get a thrill seeing the two of them on screen together again almost 20 years later.

“…a great conclusion to the trilogy…”

Just as with the previous two Equalizer movies, this is Denzel Washington’s film, and it sings whenever he’s on screen. This is Denzel’s first movie trilogy (after The Equalizer 2 was his first sequel), so he clearly finds something appealing about delving into the character’s psyche. This is being marketed as the final film in the series, and if that is the case, it goes out on a high note with a great conclusion to the trilogy. While this movie’s climax can’t match the inventiveness of the first film’s DIY-superstore set finale (which, in my view, is the trilogy’s highpoint), it does still have some great action sequences, and in places, almost treats McCall like a preternatural ‘bogeyman’ from the bad guy’s perspective.

Although the first Equalizer film is still my favourite (in part, because it also had the most memorable villains, whereas the villains in The Equalizer 3 are fairly generic and underwritten), this final chapter is much better than The Equalizer 2 in my opinion, in large part because it remembers what it is that makes the character of Robert McCall unique – he’s not out for revenge, or even for justice, he just wants to equalise the odds for those with nowhere else to turn.