Equals (2015)

Written by CinemaSerf on April 4, 2022

Maybe this looked better on paper, but on a big screen it is a sterile and really rather plodding story. Nicholas Hoult - who takes an annoyingly unrevealing series of hot showers - lives a routine life as a glorified android, his daily grind in his pristine environment; his clothes, food, sleep all exactly the same from day to day. He encounters "Nia" (Kristen Stewart) and over a relatively short period of time (felt longer) the two begin to have a few tingles for each other. Turns out that this is all as a result of some existential event, and mankind is rationing and controlling just about everything that is left - and that includes sex. Can these two break free of their delicate, invisible, chains? Well, what do you think? The thing I can say, is that everything they do is done at a glacial pace. The soporific score adds very little excitement to this really pretty pedestrian affair. Even the one scene of mad "passion" is more a testament to the skill of the cameraman at keeping it rated U, than at relating anything like the desire the two are supposed to feel for each other. The production standards are high, but the dialogue is pretty sparing - their environment renders their conversation about as interesting as their sex lives, and I am afraid that I was just a bit bored by the whole thing.