Directed by:
Steve McQueenCinematography:
Sean BobbittComposer:
Hans ZimmerCast:
Viola Davis, Michelle Rodriguez, Elizabeth Debicki, Cynthia Erivo, Colin Farrell, Brian Tyree Henry, Daniel Kaluuya, Garret Dillahunt, Carrie Coon (more)VOD (3)
Plots(1)
From acclaimed director Steve McQueen and co-writer Gillian Flynn comes a blistering, modern-day thriller with a powerful ensemble cast. When four armed robbers are killed in a failed heist attempt, their widows - with nothing in common except a debt left by their dead husbands’ criminal activities - take fate into their own hands to forge a future on their own terms. (20th Century Fox Home Entertainment)
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Reviews (9)
The ambitious 12 Years a Slave didn't appeal to me too much, but Widows is a different matter altogether. I haven't seen so many characters in one (new) film in a while that are so well written and acted and that aren't wasted, and it's a downright joy to watch them. And when their story is interesting, thrilling, well shot and has something to surprise you with (and it does), there's nothing to worry about.
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An unbelievably racist and gender-biased film. No white man is innocent. McQueen serves up an unorthodox heist flick in which girls have to take care of things by themselves. The brilliant and vibrant Zimmer sets the pace and the female cast rocks. Out of all of them, Elizabeth Debicky is the most captivating (and not just visually). The twist with Neeson is unusual. The political storyline is reminiscent of The Wire. The ending is deeply ironic. P.S. Jon Bernthal didn’t last long. (joke, ha ha).
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What got me to watch the film was its decent cast, but I feel like I was tricked. Given how boring it was, the running time was downright murderous. I’m not sure if there was a deeper message. My only takeaway from the film is that it was another act of brown nosing to the creators of racial quotas, so two black women, one responsible Hispanic mother and a Polish blonde meet to embark on a life of crime. Especially the character of Veronica seemed rather weird, at times almost schizophrenic. Her transitions from a righteous widow to a "cool" badass were really hard to believe. The script was very predictable, and I actually didn't enjoy any of it.
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Steve McQueen is a solid craftsman and his dramatic opening chase scene is fiercely authentic and almost chillingly realistic, but Widows won’t be a big hit, and not even the charisma of Viola Davis and Hans Zimmer’s rehash of his Synchrotone from Black Hawk Down will help. The monotonous atmospheric synths are often reminiscent of Michael Mann's heist gem, or The Dark Knight, but everything else is terribly far from that. The film can be raw and dramatic, but it's marred by a not-so-cleverly handled and mostly unnecessary twist like a 90s B-movie that actually sends it down the drain, and most of the seriousness is gone by that point. There is no probe into the underbelly of Chicago, nor is there an ode to female combativeness and determination. It’s just another ordinary crime drama, this time with women who want to be taken seriously playing the main roles.
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Widows has the parameters of a great film, but in order to fulfil them, it should build psychological depth with something more sophisticated than long shots of the faces of the suffering heroines. And Steve McQueen, a guy with impressive talent who knows how to stage scenes that don’t fall into sterility and abounds in interesting style ideas, should make up his mind about what story he wants to tell. The film follows the structure of a heist movie that expands the knowledge of the audience about the actions of the characters, but it’s more interested in a closed psychological arc that is quite superficial and pushes aside many promising motifs (the weirdly (un)closed line of Colin Farrell, the black guy from the barbershop, and even the potential highlight of Liam Neeson). I loved the realistic nature of the action scenes that reminded me of Heat, I enjoyed the smoothly incorporated humour, and there’s hardly anything to complain about the performances, and yet Widows left me with the feeling of the squandered potential to be the strongest emancipation drama of the decade – it ends up as nothing but a poorly edited and too telegraphic showcase of technical sophistication and impressive directorial vision that will unfortunately be soon forgotten. 65%
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