(Credit: Netflix)

The Equalizer sees Denzel Washington play an ageing action hero with relish. Although Antoine Fuqua’s film adaptation of the 1980s TV series might stick fairly rigidly to a well-worn formula for crime thrillers, Washington’s chemistry with the excellent Chloë Grace Moretz gives it the emotional clout it needs to bring us along for the ride.

Moretz plays teenage sex worker Teri, real name Alina, who meets Washington’s retired intelligence agent Robert in the diner he frequents at night. Through Alina, Robert soon encounters the Russian crime syndicate pimping her out. When the manager of their diner informs him that “someone beat her up real good”, he decides to be the “knight in shining armour” he once told her about.

He begins targeting members of the syndicate all across his home city of Boston, neutralising as many as he can, even if that means killing them. His quest for exacting vigilante justice ultimately leads him to the mansion of the principal villain running the entire syndicate, oligarch Vladimir Pushkin. The film’s writer, Richard Wenk, clearly decided not to overthink the naming of that character.

Although Pushkin’s death marks the climax of the movie, the heart of the story is its inciting incident – Robert crossing paths with Alina. In one of the final scene, Alina catches up with Robert, revealing that she’s almost fully recovered from her injuries and has a “proper job”.

She also tells him about “this envelope” among her belongings at the hospital where she was being treated, with “almost $10,000 inside, and a ticket out of town.” Although Robert doesn’t admit that he’s the one who gave her the envelope, it’s implied that Alina knows he did.

So, why did he help her?

After meeting at the diner, Robert and Teri got talking. She told him her name, opening up to her in a way she didn’t appear to with anyone else. She then gave him a mixtape with the words “Alina, the Singer” scrawled on it. Robert encourages her to follow her dream, telling her, “I think you can be anything you wanna be.”

At the same time, Alina shows enormous empathy and compassion for Robert’s situation. She works out that his wife has died, explaining, “see a lot of widowed guys. Something in the eyes. You know, it’s not sad. Just kinda… lost.”

Later, when the two are out walking, Robert shares with her that he “can’t sleep”, which is why he spends his nights in the diner. Without the company and comfort of their wife and a job in the intelligence services to keep him occupied and give him a sense of purpose, his mind never stops turning.

It’s this need to serve, to feel useful, that at least partly motivates his vigilantism against Alina’s exploiters. That, along with the bond he forms with Alina herself, is due to his interest in her dream of being a singer and her understanding of his loneliness and grief.

Thanks to Washington and Moretz’s performances, this bond feels real and authentic. It’s enough reason to make anyone who enjoyed The Equalizer 3 which was one of last year’s cinematic success stories, return to this first instalment of the series on Netflix.