C+Directed by Meera Menon Starring Anna Gunn Review by Jon Kissel |  |
The easy line, and one I erased on a first draft, on Equity is that Anna Gunn, having played a critically beloved but widely and unjustly despised character on Breaking Bad, gets to take her own shot at anti-heroism. In actuality, there's no comparison between Gunn's terse, by-the-books investment banker character and the man she was married to on TV. One yells at an assistant in an imploding situation while the other contracts with neo-Nazi's to stage the simultaneous murders of a dozen men. Equity, an underseen financial drama by Meera Menon, brings those differences in perception to the surface. The female equivalent to violence and megalomania in male characters surely isn't a curt demeanor or a wariness about who could potentially supplant you in your competitive field. Why did I go straight to thinking of Naomi as an anti-hero instead of a protagonist?
Disappointingly, this dynamic and how Equity relates to Breaking Bad and all the opprobrium that was heaped on Gunn's character from fans is the perhaps the most interesting thing about it. This is a film directed by a woman, written by a team of three women (Amy Fox, Alysia Reiner, and Sarah Megan Thomas), and starring a woman with two other complex women characters high on the call sheet (Reiner and Thomas), and though that's a rare and admirable thing, it doesn't blind the viewer to a story that twists itself into contortions as it nears its conclusion. To the writers' credit, Equity is the rare financial drama where foul play errs on the side of illegal-ish instead of baldly fraudulent (Wall Street, 99 Homes). All the various interests surrounding the IPO's that Naomi deals in, from the bankers to the hedge funds, are too cliquish and incestuous to completely shut down the flow of information, leaving prosecutors like Reiner's Samantha grasping at rumor and the flimsy hope that people who just made off with ill-gotten millions will voluntarily turn themselves in. The machinery surrounding these developments and realizations is clunky but the germ of the idea is refreshingly sound.
With all the female minds on this project, all of whom work in a male-dominated business, the equity of the title doesn't only refer to its financial definition. Menon includes repeated asides about the differences in the workplace between men and women. Less productive male coworkers of Naomi's are preferred for promotion due to their connections. Naomi is believed to be more abrasive than others in her office, though there's never any evidence of it in the film. Pregnancy must be concealed til the last possible moment, and women's advice is more readily dismissed. Equity occasionally underlines this in a ham-fisted way, like when Thomas' character is caught looking at one of those 'have it all' Internet articles, but when it's allowing these and other slights to go uncommented upon, it's on surer footing.
Of the several post-recession financial dramas, Equity isn't the best of the lot. Menon's film has the best malfeasance while also being the sole entry to consider women on Wall Street, but the way it gets to the former leaves much to be desired. Though Gunn is wonderfully authoritative and restrained, and the first hour hums with intelligence and relevance, the film slowly deflates from subpar characterization and on-the-nose dialogue. It's a strong effort that needed some sanding. More rough-edged female characters are always welcome. C+
With all the female minds on this project, all of whom work in a male-dominated business, the equity of the title doesn't only refer to its financial definition. Menon includes repeated asides about the differences in the workplace between men and women. Less productive male coworkers of Naomi's are preferred for promotion due to their connections. Naomi is believed to be more abrasive than others in her office, though there's never any evidence of it in the film. Pregnancy must be concealed til the last possible moment, and women's advice is more readily dismissed. Equity occasionally underlines this in a ham-fisted way, like when Thomas' character is caught looking at one of those 'have it all' Internet articles, but when it's allowing these and other slights to go uncommented upon, it's on surer footing.
Of the several post-recession financial dramas, Equity isn't the best of the lot. Menon's film has the best malfeasance while also being the sole entry to consider women on Wall Street, but the way it gets to the former leaves much to be desired. Though Gunn is wonderfully authoritative and restrained, and the first hour hums with intelligence and relevance, the film slowly deflates from subpar characterization and on-the-nose dialogue. It's a strong effort that needed some sanding. More rough-edged female characters are always welcome. C+
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