A Facebook friend who must be familiar with my cinematic complaint that movies about finance are usually a complete sausage fest brought Equity to my attention. Equity is a drama starring, written, directed and produced by women, but more importantly, it is a solid drama. Equity is about Naomi, a senior investment banker who is good at her job, but has a perception problem that she is trying to overcome to make her next deal a success and get a promotion. Equity also focuses on several supporting characters: a former classmate who is investigating her firm, a younger ambitious assistant who is facing a personal turning point and her lover, an aging hedge fund manager who works for the same firm.
What is unusual about Equity is that Naomi is practically perfect for the world of finance instead of an anti-hero. She has achieved the work life balance that she wants. She is ambitious, happily childless and unmarried, works hard, but takes time to have a lover, socialize with friends and exercise with a personal trainer. She can spot most problems a mile away. She gives her assistant credit for hard work and dismisses the idea of withdrawing her support from her assistant when others in her position may do so. She does not care about status and will throw underperforming underlings under the bus. She is ethical and never breaks the law. I also dug aspects of Naomi that some may find off-putting: her strong, straightforward and practical approach.
Every character in Equity is sympathetic even when they act questionably and put Naomi in jeopardy. Equity artfully empathizes with its supporting characters by showing how natural human failings influence business. Even when something is about money, it is not about money. For Naomi’s lover, he wants to remain relevant and not become a relic. For Naomi’s assistant, she feels like her identity is slipping away, and her opportunities are narrowing. For Naomi’s classmate, she feels inadequate and unsuccessful in comparison to her classmates even if she has the most conventionally fulfilling life-a spouse who loves and supports her, children who know and love her (not the nanny) and a boss who appreciates her and does not blame her for career obstacles that she did not create.
Equity subtlety uses gender to address inequities (get it!!!) faced by women in professional advancement in male dominated professions while simultaneously not giving in to the tired tropes of women as good and men as villains. Characters are depicted as complex human beings who struggle against different cultural norms depending on their positions.
Equity is not just strong on character development, but it is a visually stunning movie. Equity is shot in NYC and sports sleek exterior and interior shots. Most of the characters are not young, but everyone looks stunning. Equity has a great cast. I will one day see it, but I still have not seen one episode of Breaking Bad. I enjoyed Anna Gunn’s performance as Naomi and found her toughness appealing. I have been a huge James Purefoy fan since seeing him in Rome and The Following. I have no idea how I know Alysia Reiner, but while her character’s investigation seemed questionable, her demeanor and swagger were spot on for a government attorney. My only complaint is that I did not get more Tracie Thoms, Carrie Preston or Margaret Colin.
For viewers who are hoping to jazz up Equity’s plot with a dash of action or a random murder mystery, keep moving because Equity is not for you. Equity has a fairly realistic plot, but my only quibble is that a person like Naomi would have faced some combination of these obstacles earlier in her career, particularly the perception problem and ensuing lack of respect from clients and colleagues. I would not mind if Equity became a TV series.
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Naomi would have become suspicious the minute that she was on a speakerphone. If she was going to walk out in disgust over the innate unfairness of perception versus actual results and success, she would have left ages ago, but I suppose once having a good boss, enjoying the challenge and money kept her at the firm. What will Naomi do? Start her own firm with modest success, but making as much money as she did at the firm will be difficult, especially with the whiff of failure from the last two IPOs even though that judgment is undeserved. Kissing up and making nice are not part of her genetic makeup so her competence and manner should have gotten her kicked out ages ago. Someone as decent and straightforward as Naomi only lasted as long as she did because she once had a boss who liked her. Without a good boss, a competent, ethical woman who is unconcerned with socioeconomic status of others faces more obstacles than her colleagues.
Also things could have gone either way for her assistant, but I don’t think that the resolution to her plot is necessarily a happy one. There is still a baby on the way unless all that seafood, alcohol and running did not put it in jeopardy, and she does not have a good poker face. Without a reliable ally, her career may still be in jeopardy, and any success may be short-lived. Even if her career is fine, she will probably have a kid who hates her, and the end of a relationship seems to loom in her future.
Sure the hedge fund manager got a better job, but he is only as good as his latest deal and getting older by the minute. His personal life took a hit, and he does not seem too happy about it. He has a string of personal failures and a limited shelf life in the business world though he is dancing as fast as he can. Plus he is on the government’s radar. I think the jig may soon be up, but who will stop the music: his colleagues or the government. If he is smart, he will cash out as soon as possible, but then the existential dread and loneliness will set in.
As for Naomi’s former classmate, she thinks that she wants money, but she wants money AND her old life, but she has yet to realize that she cannot have both. If she stays at her new job, she will face the same world that Naomi did and will probably lose. If she does not lose, she will have to remain eternally vigilant and will probably be miserable. She will probably face discrimination since the private sector is more conservative than the public, particularly in finance. She will be miserable in her new position, have an affair with the next cute, young waitress that she sees and ruin her marriage.