"The Equalizer 3": review

Denzel Washington as angel of death Robert McCall

[WARNING: some spoilers.]

"The Equalizer 3" is a 2023 action drama once again ably directed by Antoine Fuqua. The cast includes Denzel Washington, Eugenio Mastrandrea, Gaia Scodellaro, Dakota Fanning, David Denman, Remo Girone, Andrea Dodero, and Andrea Scarduzio. It's supposedly the final movie in an Equalizer trilogy, but both the star and the director have said they'd be open to the possibility of doing a fourth movie. Denzel is 68 this year. For comparison's sake, Sylvester Stallone is 77 as of this writing, and he's still churning out Expendables movies, so if Stallone can keep making muscular, slam-bang action movies, so can Denzel, whose Robert McCall isn't given to flashy, athletic moves, anyway.

"The Equalizer 3" begins in Sicily, with a mafia boss driving a truck back to his own property in what looks like wine country, passing by corpses as he gets closer to his rustic compound. A young boy is with him; the older man parks near the compound's main building, pulls a pistol, and bids the boy stay in the truck. A freaked-out henchman is waiting outside; the henchman says, cryptically, "He told me to wait outside." Presumably the he is the man who killed his way into the compound. The two enter the main building, again passing corpse after corpse of the compound's defenders. As they descend into the building's depths, the number of bodies mounts until they find themselves in a sunlit room with Robert McCall (Washington) sitting in a chair, flanked by two henchmen. The henchmen have their guns pointed at McCall, but it's obvious McCall is merely permitting them to live. The mafia boss wonders aloud how the henchmen are still breathing after all the destruction he's just witnessed. He and McCall talk; it's a discussion whose subtext is one of pure menace, with the mafia boss still not fully realizing who and what McCall is. McCall casually notes that one henchman is standing a foot too close to him; McCall is sorry for the henchman's family, given what's going to happen next. McCall tells the boss that he's here because the boss took something that didn't belong to him, and the boss now has nine seconds to decide his fate. The boss's ego prevents him from backing down, and when the nine seconds are up, McCall springs into action, easily dispatching the two henchmen and severely wounding the mafia boss. The boss crawls away pitifully with McCall stalking him. McCall picks up a shotgun, first shooting the boss right between the buttocks. In another movie, this might have been comical, and but one of the scariest things about Robert McCall is that he likes watching his main victims die slowly. The boss can crawl no farther; he draws up to a wall, turning around and painfully leaning on it to meet his fate. McCall shoots the boss in the face; some of the shot pellets pierce the wine barrel behind the mafia boss, who dies in a fountain of blood and wine. McCall gets whatever it is he's come for, but on his way out, he gets shot in the back by the young boy who'd been left in the truck. The boy sees what he's done and runs away; McCall can feel he's wounded. It's initially a minor wound, but it bleeds profusely while McCall is making his way by ferry back to the mainland. He manages to drive most of the way to the beautiful mountain town of Altamonte before he can drive no more. Bleeding heavily from his wound, McCall is taken by a local carabinieri named Gio (Mastrandrea) to the town's kindly old doctor Enzo (Girone).

The next part of the movie is about McCall's recovery, his growing love for the townspeople of Altamonte, and his dark realization that elements of the mafia are at work here as well, with a branch of the Camorra run by Vincent Quaranta (Scarduzio) attempting to take over all business along this part of the mainland's coast. McCall is beginning to feel that this is where he's supposed to be, where he should retire, but the do-gooder part of him can't let the mafia spread unchecked, and he knows he's going to have to face Vincent and his younger brother Marco (Dodero), an enforcer. As McCall settles into life in Altamonte, he makes the acquaintance of a café waitress named Aminah (Scodellaro), and he meets the carabinieri's daughter. He also feeds information about mafia activity back to the CIA via Agent Emma Collins (Fanning). Eventually for McCall, things come to a head with the Camorra.

If it weren't for the human touches that writer Richard Wenk added to Robert McCall's character, McCall could easily be a Gary Stu—a perfect, infallible, unflappable killing machine for whom everything comes easily, and nothing is a challenge. But McCall gets shot in the beginning of the story because he mistakenly dismisses the kid—the mafia boss's grandson—after telling him to remain in the truck. He also spends a large part of the movie just healing: the town he's in is built on the steep flanks of mountains, so he quickly has to learn how to climb stairs again. McCall's vulnerability as he grows to love the picturesque town of Altamonte also humanizes him, and it turns out that there's a reason McCall chose Agent Collins to be his CIA contact: a reason that dates back to the first movie. Perhaps the story could have done more to make the local mafia more personally threatening; then again, it may be enough that McCall falls in love with Altamonte as a whole. All of this keeps McCall from becoming a full-on Gary Stu.

Robert McCall isn't John Wick: Keanu Reeves shows off his athleticism in the role of a tough, cold killer, often resorting to jiujitsu-style grappling moves to deal with opponents while also relying on occasional punches, kicks, and double taps. McCall tends to take in his surroundings and quietly form plans, counterplans, and contingency plans: he's a combination of the Batman and the Joker; to him, everything is an op. Fighting happens when the enemy refuses to give ground and McCall has no other choice. When McCall gets physical, his fighting style is fast, brutal, and effective, evincing economy of movement—no flashiness, no waste of energy. This makes more sense as McCall gets older.* When these fights happen, the outcome is never in doubt. On the one hand, that means the fights carry little suspense; on the other hand, there's a grim satisfaction that comes with watching McCall take a deserving bastard down. In all three Equalizer movies, the "final boss" fight seems almost anticlimactic because McCall never loses the upper hand, but as I said, there's still the satisfaction of a well-done kill. In this movie more than in the previous two, McCall evinces his ghoulish tendency to watch certain of his victims die. Those moments always remind me of the creepy scene in "The Empire Strikes Back" as Han Solo is about to be tortured: Vader, standing next to the torture rack, leans in close to watch Solo suffer.

I can see some people complaining that "The Equalizer 3" takes too long to build up the conflict, but I disagree. We need to see McCall fall in love with Altamonte so we can understand what's at stake for him, and I think those scenes of his recovery, his interactions with the locals, and the seductive ambiance of Altamonte itself are nicely balanced by McCall's realization that the mafia is a burdensome reality here. I don't think the movie's pacing is bad at all. Is it slow at times? Yes, but the slowness makes sense given the nature of the plot. This isn't a revenge movie like the second one.

Unlike in the second movie, McCall's race is never once an issue here. The townspeople never make mention of it; they merely see McCall as a friendly presence as he practices his broken Italian with the locals. The villains never mention McCall's race, either: they disparagingly refer to him as "the American" as they try to find out who he really is, but whatever animus they feel toward him isn't motivated by racial bigotry. McCall's race was slightly an issue in the second film as he tried to connect to a young artist struggling to get out of the 'hood to find success on his own, but even in that movie, race was a minor plot point at best. I don't recall race being an issue in the first movie, either. Whether a movie focuses on race can be good or bad depending on the story. What relieves me isn't so much that "The Equalizer 3" never focuses on race: it's the fact that the story is more important than pushing any sort of agenda. Hats off, again, to Richard Wenk, who wrote the stories for all three movies.

"The Equalizer 3" has a moment where it deals with the lofty theme of miracles. McCall and Agent Collins meet at a high mountainside church, and McCall asks Collins whether she believes in miracles. Collins responds by offering an unusual definition of them: "a bunch of seemingly random acts all falling into line at the right time and place." She then dismisses miracles, but the issue comes up repeatedly for McCall, who increasingly feels that he is meant to be right where he's supposed to be. This coming-together of McCall and Altamonte is a boon for McCall, but as McCall notes to Marco, the younger brother of crime boss Vincent, this also means that the timing of McCall's arrival spells doom for Marco, Vincent, and the rest of the local mafia. And maybe that was meant to be as well.

McCall is easy to root for, despite the spine-chilling way in which he handles his enemies, in large part because Denzel Washington is such a likable presence. After three films, Washington inhabits McCall perfectly, and we always want to see things turn out well for him. We also secretly hope never to become the object of McCall's wrath because it might be us gasping our last breath while McCall stares coldly into our eyes.

Dakota Fanning is fine as Agent Collins; this movie is apparently a Fanning/Washington reunion: they both starred together in 2004's "Man on Fire," which I've never seen. Agent Collins has a boss played by David Denman; I racked my brains trying to remember where I'd last seen Denman, then it came to me: he played the ill-fated father in "Brightburn." Eugenio Mastrandrea, as the carabinieri Gio Bonucci, has the unenviable task of playing a policeman aware of all the corruption around him but impotent to do anything about it, with Marco and the rest of the Camorra running rampant in the town and constantly threatening Gio's family. Remo Girone, as Enzo the old doctor, brings a gentle gravitas to his role. Enzo is initially a bit cagey with Robert while Robert convalesces at the doctor's residence. Enzo tells Robert that Altamonte is full of "good people," but it's only later that he opens up about the local mafia. Gaia Scodellaro, as Aminah the friendly waitress, is pert and sassy; there's the possibility for romantic chemistry between her and McCall, but a romantic subplot is not this movie's focus. Andrea Dodero plays Marco, perfectly depicting the puffed-up little brother who struts around because his big brother is a crime boss. And Andrea Scarduzio, as Vincent the local Camorra boss, isn't the most inspired villain I've seen, but Scarduzio plays the role with flinty-eyed venom. Don't cross Vincent, or you'll lose a hand and have it served to you in an ice bucket.

I waited a few days before writing this review of "The Equalizer 3," which is not my usual modus operandi. And even after a few days, the movie is sitting comfortably in my memory, having left me with an irenic feeling of satisfaction. Personally, I think "The Equalizer 3" really ought to be the capstone of the series: there's no reason for the trilogy to become a tetralogy. That would feel like a vulgar cash grab. This movie does a good job of combining a good story with awesome Italian cinematography, and with rarefied, cosmic themes like miracles suffusing the plot, where can one really go from there? "The Equalizer 3" is a satisfying ending to a good, solid series of movies. Its hero isn't a musclebound, endlessly physical brute, but he's merciless in his own way, an angel to those he loves, and the Grim Reaper to those who get in his way. See the movie with my enthusiastic blessing.

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*In the 1985 TV series, Robert McCall was played by Edward Woodward as an aging ex-agent.