GETTING TO KNOW YOU: Mild mannered, seemingly innocuous Robert McCall (left) is intrigued by the prostitute Teri (Chloe Grace Moretz) whom he comes to know during his late night visits to the diner whenever he has bouts of insomnia. Teri frequents the diner during breaks between her clients, and McCall befriends her. When Teri comes in one night with a black eye, McCall, who is a retired spy, takes it upon himself to punish the person who beat up Teri.

On the surface, Robert McCall (Denzel Washington) is a pleasant hail fellow well met person. By day, the affable widower works as a sales associate at a hardware superstore where he jokes with co-workers who call him “Pops.” Evenings, he retires to a modest apartment in a working class Boston community, although bouts of insomnia often have him going to a nearby diner to read a book into the wee hours of the morning.

The dingy joint looks a lot like the diner depicted by Edward Hopper in the classic painting Nighthawks. Among the seedy haunt’s habitués is Teri (Chloe Grace Moretz), a teen age prostitute who hangs out there between clients.

Robert takes a personal interest in the troubled teen who is a recent immigrant whose real name is Alina. He soon learns that she’d rather be pursuing a musical career than sleeping with stranger after stranger. Trouble is she’s under the thumb of Slavi (David Meunier), a sadistic pimp who’ll stop at nothing to keep her in check.

A critical moment arrives the night she arrives in the restaurant and hands Robert her new demo tape while trying to hide a black-eye. But he becomes less interested in the CD than in the whereabouts of the person who gave her the shiner.

What neither Teri, nor anybody else knows, is that Robert is a retired spy who has a set of deadly skills that he learned as part of his past job. At this juncture, the mild mannered retiree reluctantly morphs into an anonymous vigilante who doles out street justice on behalf of Teri and other vulnerable crime victims who have no other recourse for justice.

Thus unfolds The Equalizer, a riveting, gruesome adaptation of the popular 1980s TV series. Directed by Antoine Fuqua, this version is actually more reminiscent of Death Wish (1974), because the film’s protagonist behaves more like the brutal avenging angel portrayed on the big screen by Charles Bronson than the television show’s British gentleman.

Considerable credit goes to Oscar winner Mauro Fiore’s (Avatar) captivating cinematography that shows Boston in a way which is somehow both stylish and haunting. Nevertheless, the panoramas only serve as a backdrop for Denzel who is even better here than in his Oscar winning collaboration with Fuqua in Training Day.

Excellent (****). Rated R for graphic violence, sexual references, and pervasive profanity. In English and Russian with subtitles. Running time: 131 minutes. Distributor: Sony Pictures.