Review of Equus

This movie is never boring, that must be said. Although it runs 138 minutes, it feels more like 98. BUT....its "message" is dubious at best (there is a difference between non-conformity and sheer paranoia; the boy's actions are never condemned, and almost justified by the movie) and the "devices" used by Lumet to transfer the play to the screen (like flashbacks with an older Firth playing the six-year-old Firth, or Burton's madman-like monologues) create an extra feeling of artificiality. Also, it would help if we could study the gradual disintegration of the boy's mind, but there is no "gradual" - he is deranged from the start. (**)