Equilibrium. “The disease is human emotion!”

This, I came across on Netflix last night. It’s a sci fi thriller/ action film directed and written by Kurt Wimmer. So a couple of seconds in, we’re told that, in this dystopian future, it is against the law to feel emotion. I roll my eyes at this point. Then there’s the explanation. Quite often in sci fi films set in a world differing from ours, there has to be some kind of explanation of what has happened to make it that way, usually with the assistance of a voice over or subtitles where one paragraph fades to make way for the next. However in Equilibrium we have both subtitles and voiceover, only the subtitles didn’t display all of what was said in the voiceover, but select highlights. It was like watching an advert. A really boring advert.

But stick with it. I’m so glad I did. Because after the back story is fed numbly to us, Christian Bale walks in with his squad of emotionless beings and the action begins.

 

Here’s the plot. Bale’s character, John, is a high-ranking officer of a team of law enforcers. The world in which these people live has been created separate from the old world in which there are too many relics which may inspire emotion (art, literature, etc.) Emotion is forbidden in this new world because hate is what caused a 3^rd world war. The inhabitants of this totalitarian society have to administer an emotion repressing serum to themselves using this strange injection which also looks like a gun (into their neck, no less). Yum. Bale’s character drops his daily dosage one evening. Eventually he grows addicted to emotion cue all the crazy sh*t that’s about to go down.

There were some weird visual effects. One scene had Bale shooting at people in complete darkness and so the only light emitted was that from the gun as he shot it creating lightening type visuals. It was pretty exciting. I like Wimmer’s style.

This is probably the only situation in which describing dialogue as being devoid of emotion be a complement. And that is exactly what it was for the most part. And, to be honest, I think that is probably a hard thing to do!

Another difficult task was actually playing the role of an emotionless human being. The cast were brilliant. Bale, after stopping his dosage, had to play a man who had feelings but had to act as someone who didn't  It was acting within acting. Inception acting.

 

Ironically, through trying to prevent a war by eradicating emotion, they were actually at war with emotion which, in turn, lead to the uprise of a resistance. Bottom line? Humans love war? I must say, this film did not leave me with a positive outlook on life or on human nature. I do, however, think that it was an amazing film.

Brilliance, pure brilliance.

And to all of you who are familiar with Blake Snyder: I thought it was pretty funny that Bale’s character’s “save the cat moment” was actually a “save the dog moment”. Lol.

Also, if you want to see Christian Bale in another emotionless role, watch American Psycho. He really nails it.

8/10