DARK PLACES (2015)

Genre: Thriller
Running Length:1:43
Cast: Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult, Chloe Grace Moretz, Corey Stoll, Christina Hendricks
Director: Gilles Paquet-Brenner
Screenplay: Gilles Paquet-Brenner, based on the novel by Gillian Flynn.

"The hardest prison to escape is in your mind."

If only DARK PLACES explored the angle of the psychological trauma of guilt and lies have on its characters, this movie could have been a far more satisfying cinematic experience. Don't get me wrong, this is not a bad movie but it's not very good either. Blame it on today's abundance of solid crime thriller stories available on TV, this film appears surprisingly tame for the big screen (perhaps this is why it has not gotten a domestic release date in the U.S.). Dark Places is told from the first person (Theron), one of two known survivors of a family massacre that took place in 1985 on the family farm in rural Kansas. In present day, she's compelled to revisit the demons of her childhood to find out whether her then teenage brother (the other survivor who's serving life time in jail for his crime) actually killed their mother and two other siblings. As the movie unfolded, it kept me guessing but when the end credits rolled, I just felt it was a missed opportunity. Gillian Flynn’s second adaptation (first being Gone Girl) to the silver screen has all the raw ingredients of a great film; satanic cults, twisted family secrets, obsessions, lies, selflessness, young lust and serial killings and it has the very dependable Charlize Theron - but it just turned out to be an average motion picture. Perhaps it lacked atmosphere and a dark soundtrack. Perhaps the director is not an actor's director. Perhaps it's the screenplay. Whatever it is, just imagine what David Fincher could have done with a setup like that. There are a dime a dozen of whodunits stories out there in both the small and big screen, but there are not many which examine the issues of guilt, innocence and lies that keep its characters locked-up not in physical prison cells but in the prison of their mind.      

Rating: 6.5/10

THE EQUALIZER (2014)

Genre: Thriller
Running Length: 2:13
Cast: Denzel Washington, Marton Csokas, Chloe Grace Moretz, David Harbour, David Meunier, Melissa Leo, Bill Pullman

Director: Antoine Fuqua 

 

"Would you do something about it because you can?"

That is basically the premise our knight in shining armour, Denzel Washington has to wrestle through in THE EQUALIZER. For the most part, this movie is a character study about an elderly man holding back his destiny because of his dark past. Antoine Fuqua (director) and Denzel Washington have collaborated before in a similar territory in Training Day, a gritty tale of police corruption with a more complex character study which was brilliantly explored but The Equalizer chose to flirt with the drama instead and focused more on the stylish (OTT at times) action scenes. Those looking for a non-stop revenge action flick (as seen in the trailer) will be disappointed as the filmmakers elected to develop this flick as a slow-burn thriller. A major portion of the running time is dedicated to set the viewers up into the right mood (the beautiful close-up shots and lingering camera work capturing the beautiful sunset over Boston) and to give a clue to who Denzel's character is (a disciplined, OCD-ish learned man. A genuinely kindhearted man with a soft spot for the oppressed and marginalized) so that when the violence starts, it's shocking and brutal. The hero scenes are from the Bollywood school of filmmaking - Denzel looks god-like as he walks calmly slo-mo across the room or away from an explosion. The action scenes are also very inventive - we get a lot of impressively choreographed hand-to-hand fight scenes using everyday items available (think Macgyver) to dispose off the uber badass baddies. Items include and not limited to; cork screws, books, sledge hammers, barb wires, a drill, broken mirrors etc If The Equalizer has any weakness, it's that Denzel's character seems to be superhuman - he is almost indestructible and can take on an army of baddies anytime (so much so that during a scene where Denzel confronts a bad guy, a cinema goer sitting nearby uttered in Cantonese, "(Profanity) lor...yi gor yau chai sei ngang" (translate: This guy is sure to meet his death)). The pacing of the movie could have also benefited from a tighter running time. In the end, The Equalizer will not carve out any new niches in the action genre (like how Die Hard did) but it's a memorable origin movie that will certainly belong at the top as one of the more successful TV-to-film adaptations, alongside the Mission: Impossible series. This is probably the ultimate Denzel movie.

Rating: 7.5/10