Equilibrium
Release Date:
December 6, 2002
Limited release
Writer/director Kurt Wimmer follows up his work on 1999's The Thomas Crown Affair with this look at a dreary future. This film has an impressive young cast, including Christian Bale, Taye Diggs and Emily Watson.
The film is set in a future where human feelings have been forbidden, and all artwork, music, books and movies have been destroyed. The Powers That Be determined that emotions were the cause of suffering in the world, so they took it upon themselves to control these emotions using powerful medications. Bale plays John Preston, one of the "clerics" who hunts down people who have refused to take their daily dosage. He finds out that one of his co-workers has stopped taking the drugs and John must kill him.
But curiosity gets the best of him, and he misses one of his doses. In Bale's own words, "[Preston goes] from bad guy to good guy in five days. I'm feeling everything for the first time. It's been quite confusing, really, and the character is quite confused himself for half of [the film]."
It seems that these depressing-future movies don't tend to do very well with audiences. But test screenings have been giving fairly positive reactions. Maybe the general public will feel differently about this one. (Marty Doskins/BOP)
Tweet
