Equity

Equity casts Anna Gunn as Naomi Bishop, an investment banker who is attempting to negotiate and follow through on a deal involving an up-and-coming online security company – with Naomi’s continuing efforts hindered by a wife variety of periphery characters (including Sarah Megan Thomas’ ambitious underling and Alysia Reiner’s dogged investigator). It’s semi-interesting (yet all-too-complex) material that’s utilized to terminally underwhelming effect by director Meera Menon, as the filmmaker, working from Amy Fox’s screenplay, has infused the proceedings with less-than-cinematic visuals and an excessively, disastrously deliberate pace. The hands-off atmosphere is compounded by an ongoing emphasis on elements that couldn’t possibly be less interesting, with the movie’s narrative, particularly in its early stages, focused on things that one assumes will pay off in the third act but are, up until that point, hopelessly uninvolving (eg Naomi’s relationship with a fellow banker, anything and everything concerning Reiner’s aforementioned investigator, etc). There’s little doubt, at least, that the movie fares relatively well in its smaller, character-based moments – eg Thomas’ storyline holds a lot of promise, to be sure – and yet it’s worth noting that the relentless machinations of the terminally tedious plot eventually (and ultimately) render such positive elements moot. Menon’s efforts at building a sense of momentum fall flat, naturally, and it’s distressing to note that Equity‘s third act, which should be dripping with tension, is almost astonishingly interminable – thus confirming the movie’s place as a total misfire that squanders its handful of strong performances.

*1/2 out of ****