Widows

Widows is a heist movie, but it doesn’t follow the rules of most heist movies. It may be the first heist movie I’ve seen that I wish had concentrated on more details of the planning and implementation of the crime (which took a very small amount of the film’s running time). Steve McQueen’s film is really about corruption and empowerment set against a milieu of societal and economic extremes. Knowing the films of McQueen, would you expect anything less? Widows was co-written by McQueen and Gillian Flynn (Gone Girl and Sharp Objects), so a noir story of female revenge and survival is also to be expected.

For Widows, McQueen and Flynn have brought together a stellar cast, with Academy Award-winner Viola Davis in the lead as Veronica, the wife of a career criminal (Liam Neeson). His crime mates include Jon Bernthal (Baby Driver) and Manuel Garcia-Rulfo (The Magnificent Seven). After a robbery literally goes up in flames, up and coming politician/kingpin Jamal Manning, played by Brian Tyree Henry (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse) demands of Veronica repayment of the two million dollars stolen from him. Backed by homicidal maniac Jatemme, played with relish by Daniel Kaluuya (Get Out), Manning puts tortuous pressure on anyone who even knows Veronica, including her mild and meek chauffeur, Bash (Garret Dillahunt, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford). This forces Veronica to act, eventually making connections with the widows of her late husband’s criminal accomplices. These include Michelle Rodriguez (Lost) as Linda, Elizabeth Debicki (The Great Gatsby) as Alice, and a sensational Cynthia Erivo (Bad Times at the El Royale) as Belle. A very underused Carrie Coon (Gone Girl) plays another crime widow. The always mesmerizing Jacki Weaver (Animal Kingdom) plays Alice’s manipulative mother.

Jamal Manning’s political rival, Jack Mulligan of the dynastic and powerful Mulligan family (Colin Farrell, Minority Report), rebels against both his responsibilities and the decades of corruption propagated by his father, Tom (Robert Duvall), but is still willing to do whatever it takes to beat Jamal Manning in the polls. Both political rivals are corrupt scorched-earthers, using innocent lives as expendable collateral.

Widows runs for 129 minutes, but still feels like it could have and should have been longer. The reason for this is the source material: the 1983 and ’85 British TV series of the same name, consisting of twelve nearly-hour long episodes. McQueen’s film cries out for that kind of expansive, detailed storytelling, giving characters and subplots room to breathe. And yet, Widows, as with McQueen’s previous 12 Years A Slave, is adamantly and carefully paced, determined to allow small quiet moments to have their say. The score by Hans Zimmer is, fortunately, nearly non-existent. The sound design often depends on thoughtful silence, a “sound” infrequently heard in Hollywood films. I’m hoping McQueen will either write and direct more films from whole cloth, tailored for feature films, or try his hand at serialized television, a medium more suited for the expansive kind of story told here.

Widows is the sort of thoughtful, adult genre film which Hollywood makes less often as time goes by. Though far from perfect, it delivers thrills, drama and surprises for those willing to give it a chance.

—Michael R. Neno, 2018 Dec 26