I really struggled to stay awake with this one. I get what the message is, but it's too dragged out and dull. The idea is good, although already done in other films. It's well acted, although Kristen's mostly just doing the same sad face as in throughout Twilight. I couldn't understand a load of dialogue as they were speaking so dully. And the music score is dull.

Love. The birth of love. This is what I see in this film and I think it is genius. "Switched On Syndrome" is what it is called in this futuristic society, when individuals not allowed to have any emotions, begin to feel. This disease then progresses in stages, stage 4 progressing to bring "cancelled", then being sent to The Den, after which individuals disappear forever. Many individuals, in order to avoid this, committee suicide. The title refers to the so called "cure", Ashby ENI, after which affected individuals reintegrate themselves into The Collective, the world of equals, those that do not feel. The performances in this film are underrated, especially Kristen Stewart. As her character says early on, it takes an incredible amount of practice and restrain in order to not let her emotions show (she is a "hider" in the otherwise emotionless utopia). The same goes for the actors and actresses. I feel critics underestimated what it actually takes. A straight face, no significant body language, stoic movements, a completely neutral tone of voice. The other formidable aspect of this film is the mise en scène: the sleek color scheme, the lighting, the muted profiles, the clever silhouette use, the switch from all white to the masterful technique of montages, stolen smiles, glances, tears, physical contact, music, colors. Critical reception was not great. I guess many of the critics did not like the mundane, the slow pace; the not completely believable, captivating, intelligent, or even logical universe. Well, that is why most individuals do not appreciate many of the international films that I do. I am not typically a science fiction fan, nor of the future assist Society apocalyptic film. For the reasons stated above, this one was an exception. **** Spoilers **** What I did hate was the ending. Nia and Silas are planning to escape to The Peninsula, somewhere untracked where they could love freely, but the day before they plan to leave, Nia is summoned, tested, and found to be pregnant. She is taken to The Den, eventually escapes with underground help, but finds Silas a little late. À la Shakespeare, he was told she died by asphyxiation, almost commits suicide, but instead decides to receive the cure. He no longer loves her, though he claims to remember what it felt like. He decides to leave with Nia anyways. In the train, he moves to hold her hand. Curtain. I am not a fan of happy endings, all things tied up with a pretty bow, but I am a fan of realistic endings that are sad because they need to be or should be. There is no reason for the depressing ending here, however. Director Drake Doremus redeems it slightly with the hand hold. Nia is still pregnant as far as we know. But not quite enough for me.

"Equals" goes on my short list of films so fine they grow better with time.I've watched this three times now since it's release almost two years ago, and it has actually been markedly better each time as I learned to see a world that is alien to my sensibilities. By the third time, the beautiful and subtle display and repression and growth of emotions for characters affected by the "disease" - and lack of them for others unaffected - was actually heart-wrenching. This subtlety and this film is otherwise not easy to grasp because subtle emotion is largely missing or invisible in our own time and art, so maybe that's why the critics and most of the public missed the show. But miss it they did, and that's not only their true loss but certainly a loss for all involved.I guess the cast and crew knew they were making an excellent film and rose to the occasion. High end performances all around - for which we must also credit the direction, design and production quality. Some have called this film a masterpiece. It may well be, but I'll come back to view it again in a few years before I try to make that call.Meanwhile, I can tell you it's at least nearly a masterpiece. Stewart knocks it out of the park. She and the film ought to have had a couple of major awards, and the competition that year was not weak. I've rarely seen a performance anywhere the equal, and if there is a film where performance matters it is "Equals" because it is about human emotion. Mr Nicholas Hoult also deserves a vigorous nod.I don't think it's technically a spoiler to mention there is no serious nudity in this film, but the lack of it may have been the spoiler at the box office and for the critics (IMHO). The audience needs a better foothold in this future world as the film opens. The contrast of our own sexual response to nudity and the lack of such response in this imagined future dystopia could have been that, helping clarify that we are seeing genetically repressed emotional response, as contrasted with culturally suppressed. If this were my film, I'd go back to the cutting room now and add nudity at the beginning. And since that missing foothold - however its accomplished - is key to grasping the rich subtext as the film begins and unwinds, I'm going to give it a 7/10 for my first round, which is a little better than the score awarded by critics and general audience, an 8/10 for my second watch, and 9/10 for my latest viewing.Thanks to all and encore!

How do you create a bond and a connection with your audience to make them care when the very core needs of these elements are what your film deliberately doesn't have within its main characters? It's the problem Like Crazy and Breathe In director Drake Doremus faces with this, his next romantically tinged feature Equals and it's a problem that whilst is amiably worked on, is eventually one that can't quite be fixed with Doremus's visually arresting and intriguing in concept tale.Centred within a futuristic landscape where emotions have been nixed within humans to the point of being almost entirely defunct, Nicholas Hoult's illustrator Silas and Kristen Stewart's researcher Nia find themselves feeling the very emotions their organisation are unwillingly to let exist and problems from this obviously ensue.Doremus film feels like a distant cousin to a Sci-Fi films like Gattaca and over a short period of time the young filmmaker has showcased an impressive talent behind the camera with his romantically tinged dramas delivering enough to suggest that he could well become one of the most promising members of the new generation of filmmakers coming through the system but Equals feels like too much for him to pull off.It's a difficult ask for Doremus and his cast to pull Equals off, as having a film where emotions are largely held within makes it that much more difficult for the audience to invest ourselves in these persona's.In many ways Hoult and Stewart do a fine job in their respective roles and are well supported in very small ways by a supporting cast led by Australian's Guy Pearce and Jacki Weaver but in a narrative that is more focused solely on the developing feelings between Silas and Nia as they suffer through S.O.S (Switched On Syndrome), Doremus needed to broaden the horizon of this Sci-Fi universe with the possibility the film as a whole would've benefited greatly from a broader plateau of what has lead mankind to this point history, although budget restraints were clearly factors for this not taking place.Equals is a visually arresting film that feels close to being great in many ways, but is held back by numerous failings. Equals is Doremus's most disappointing film so far no doubt, yet it also harbors enough within in it to suggest that the director is still very much a talent to keep a close eye on as he progresses in his craft.2 ½ coffee mugs out of 5