In 2015, the film company Route One Films presented the film “Equal” to the world. Reviews of the film were first heard at the 72nd Venice Film Festival, where the grand opening of the melodrama took place. How did professional critics take the movie novelty? And who played the main roles in it?
A brief plot and the creators of the picture
The film "Equal", reviews of which can hardly be called unambiguous, tells the story of a fictional universe from the future. According to the plot, another terrible world war swept across our planet, destroying 99% of the population. Surviving people began their lives from scratch and built a “perfect” society in which humility, the absence of violent emotions and feelings, are cultivated.
Against the background of such a situation, the novel of a young couple - Nii and Saylos - is shown in detail. Both of them are forced to hide that they are extremely emotional individuals and suffer from outlawed SOS syndrome.
Nia and Sailos are desperately looking for like-minded people, hatched a plan to escape from a disgusting society on a sparsely populated island. But all the secret becomes clear: the secret of lovers is revealed and subjected to both the ENI procedure, introducing implants into the organisms of the protagonists that suppress any emotions. Will Nia and Sailos cope with this situation? Or is love unable to defeat a cruel social order?
The project was directed by Drake Doremus, director of the drama "Full Breast" with Guy Pearce and Felicity Jones in the lead roles. He also wrote the script for the film "Equals" in collaboration with Nathan Parker. The premiere of the painting took place in September 2015 in Venice.
Leading actors
Young Hollywood stars Kristen Stewart and Nicholas Holt got the main roles in the film "Equal."
Reviews about the acting game Stuart are very controversial. In 2008, the performer became the protagonist of the Twilight movie saga. On the one hand, her work in this project was marked by a mass of awards, such as the MTV Movie Awards or the Teen Choice Awards. On the other hand, there were nominations for Golden Raspberries for the worst acting and worst acting duet. Each appearance of Kristen on the screen causes an unpredictable reaction from critics and viewers. The same can be said about her work in the project “Equal”.
The work of Nicholas Holt in America is more restrained. He made his screen debut as a child in the melodrama My Boy with Hugh Grant. At the age of 16, Holt starred in the popular British television series Skins. And a little later, he was lucky to get into the X-Men franchise, where Nicholas got the role of mutant Beast.
In the anti-utopian drama “Equal”, the actor played Saylos, who suffers from the syndrome of heightened consciousness - a state where a person experiences fear, depression, all-consuming love. Because of his susceptibility to emotions, the hero of Holt becomes an outcast in an “ideal” society and is forced to fight for his existence.
Supporting Actors
What other celebrities can be seen in the movie "Equal"?
Reviews about the work of the Australian actor Guy Pearce, who played the character Jonas in the melodrama, are mostly positive. In 1997, the performer flashed in the Oscar-winning film “The Secrets of Los Angeles,” and later appeared in the tragicomedy “The King Speaks!”
The role of Bess was played by Jackie Weaver (“Ghosts”), the image of Rachel - the acquaintance of Saylos - embodied on the screens of Bel Pauli (“London Vacations”). Also in the frame you can see Kat Lyn Shale, Scott Lawrence ("Criminal Communications") and David Selby ("Social Network").
Peer Review: Critical Reviews
At the Venice Film Festival, the futuristic picture of Drake Doremus did not cause much excitement, so she lost the main prize in the Mexican drama "From afar". Failure awaited the film at the Toronto Film Festival. What did the critics write in their reviews after they went on a massive rental melodrama "Equal"?
Reviews of the film by professional observers were negative.
The idea of ​​the film “Equal” is clear already in the first 10-15 minutes of the development of the screen action and looks rather primitive: supposedly being insensitive is bad, without emotions people cease to be people.
When viewing the work of Drake Doremus, none of the reviewers had a sense of novelty. The plot plot of the melodrama almost exactly repeats the plot of another famous film - “Equilibrium” with Christian Bale in the lead role: in this picture people from the “ideal” society also had problems with emotions, so they were forcibly planted on a special vaccine.
The film "Equal": audience reviews
On the international IMDb website, Doremus’s melodrama has a rating of 6 out of a possible 10. This rating is calculated on the basis of online voting, so it can be used to judge what kind of feedback the audience actually received from the movie “Equal”.
For the most part, the audience perceived the picture neutrally - like a melodrama that can be watched only once for the sake of interest. Rare positive reviews come mainly from fans of leading actors, as they are always ready to support their favorites, even if they participate in unsuccessful projects.