Equinox is a 1992 film written and directed by Alan Rudolph. It stars Matthew Modine in dual roles, along with Lara Flynn Boyle, Marisa Tomei and Fred Ward. The film was shot in Minnesota and Utah and is set in the fictional city of Empire. It was nominated for four Independent Spirit Awards.
Henry Petosa and Freddy Ace are identical twins living in the fictional city of Empire with no knowledge of each other, separated at birth and placed for adoption.
Henry is a very funny and strong garage mechanic. He lives in a slum and loves Beverly Franks, his best friend's sister. He also baby-sits for his neighbor Rosie, a prostitute.
Freddy is a driver for Mr. Paris, a gangster. He is slick and self-confident, married to a materialistic woman named Sharon.
One day, a young woman named Sonya Kirk who works in a morgue accidentally comes across a letter indicating that the twins are actually the offspring of European nobility and owed a large sum of inheritance money. Sonya decides to play amateur detective and track them down.
It all leads to a confrontation between the surprised twins in a restaurant, a shootout and a final scene high above the Grand Canyon.
Twin child actors Jasen and Jereme Kane play the young version of Modine's characters, as well as appearing as the twin children in the restaurant at the end of the film.
Parts of the film were shot in Crescent Junction and Moab, Utah as well as St. Paul and Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Alan Rudolph called it "one of my hip pocket movies" like Welcome to LA, Choose Me and Trouble in Mind. He said it was a film that "requires audience participation. It tries to draw upon the audienceâÂÂs unconsciousness. The audience actually creates what it is. ItâÂÂs a fable. In fact we did everything but âÂÂOnce upon a time . . .â at the beginning of the film... ItâÂÂs a gritty movie about improbable things. "
According to Rudolph the film "was released in just a handful of theaters and then it was gone".
Variety argued "film is full of ideas and evocative scenes. But its low-key, subtle aesthetic and plotline that deliberately takes most of the running time to reveal itself will keep B.O. potential modest."
The New York Times movie reviewer Stephen Holden had praise for the actors, saying Modine "does a fine job of differentiating between the two without resorting to caricature. He is especially good at showing how the repressed qualities of each twin peek through their surfaces. As Henry's sweetheart, Ms. Boyle exudes the right mixture of warm-blooded ardor and strait-laced defensiveness."
Jonathan Rosenbaum wrote "As a fan of both" Rudolph and Modine "I should have loved this dreamy metaphysical thriller... It has so many of the usual Rudolph tics that it often comes across as Rudolph squared, but maybe thatâÂÂs the problem. Despite a likable cast, the movie drowns in its own stylishly self-regarding mannerisms and New Age pretensions." Rudolph himself later reflected: <blockquote>After a really incredible screening of the film in Chicago, where it was received exactly as IâÂÂd intended, I realized that IâÂÂd simply held up a mirror on society. This is as close as IâÂÂve come to doing that. Even though itâÂÂs fictional, itâÂÂs the same as all the films I write and direct: people trying to connect in a crazy world. But this film is also about an uncaring society, about people lying to themselves, about people whose fantasy lives become as important as their real, daily lives.</blockquote>