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Jul 29, 2016 By Sarah Winshall Web Exclusive

Equity is above all, a movie with a message. Made by and about women, the film lays bare the struggles of the undervalued and underrepresented population of female executives working on Wall Street. Drawing parallels to the film industry, Equity paints the world of corporate finance as a boy’s club in which women must work twice as hard for half the recognition. While this is an important story to tell, the message is made so explicit, it obscures integral elements of the film itself.

Anna Gunn plays Naomi Bishop, a high-powered investment banker who has fought her way almost to the top. But when an old friend in the Justice Department (Alysia Reiner) begins investigating Naomi’s team on suspicion of corruption, her aspirations for a big promotion are threatened. From the get-go, Naomi is given the opportunity to voice the film’s thesis statement: “I like money,” she says, addressing an audience of young law students at an alumni event, “Don’t let money be a dirty word.” However it is more than an hour into the film before the stakes of the investigation become explicit. In allowing the basic plot and character development to become overshadowed by the larger ‘message’, Equity clumsily directs attention away from the action onscreen and instead to the filmmakers themselves who won’t let you forget that they have something Important to say.

This misdirection is unfortunate because the film’s foundation, though obscured, has a lot to offer. Gunn, Reiner, and Sarah Megan Thomas (as a promising young executive working for Naomi, hungry for a promotion) are restrained and sophisticated, even in clunky, unsubtle scenes where they scan online articles asking “Can Women Really Have It All?” or topple literal Jenga towers meant to represent control and power. The actual plot, once cleared up, could be a great Wall Street thriller, but takes too long to fall into place.

At its worst Equity is a collection of moments that come across like a lifestyle exposé, purporting to pull back the curtain on how women in finance really live. Particularly scenes depicting the private and personal seem to be saying: “This is what powerful business women order in cocktail lounges; this is how they makes love; this is how they relieve tension.” At it’s best, it’s a valuable, long overdue feminist entry into a genre long dominated by overbearing machismo that falls flat under the weight of its own importance.

sonyclassics.com/equity

Author rating: 6.5/10