Released: November 6th 2018 (UK)
Length: 129 Minutes
Certificate: 15
Director: Steve McQueen
Starring: Viola Davies, Michelle Rodriguez, Elizabeth Debicki, Cynthia Erivo, Colin Farrell, Brian Tyree Henry, Daniel Kalluya, Carrie Coon, Robert Duvall and Liam Neeson
Relatively few films lie under Steve McQueen’s belt, but he always pours both heart and soul into each production With Widows, Steve McQueen teams up with writer Gillian Flynn to tackle the thriller genre; the result being a more emotional take on the typical heist setup.
In modern Chicago, five women are partnered with a band of professional thieves; but when a robbery goes wrong, they are all killed by the police. Caught in-between two politicians vying for power and left at the mercy of bankruptcy, the bereaved come together to finish a major heist job their partners had planned. True to McQueen’s previous work, Widows is very much a character-centric film; it goes great lengths to convey the grief and struggles the woman are going through, eloquently detailing why they get into the heist business. Sequences swap between their preparations and the background dialogue of society with the occasional flashback. We see a setting marked by deep divides and people struggling to get by and Widows uses this to drive its story; the tone is carefully crafted, never veering into full action territory. It’s a serious affair from beginning to end.
The film thematically grounds itself in the drastically contrasting neighbourhoods of Chicago and the cinematography often reflects this; there’s a brilliant shot in a car around hallway through that pans from the poor black neighbourhood to the upper-class white houses with fences to deter intruders. This contrast fuels the motivations of the two political figures while emphasising the divisions of class that hang over the city of Chicago. The music by Hans Zimmer reflects the notion of tragedy the envelopes the characters, before rapidly heating up in the film’s climax. The action, which is tense, gritty and densely shot, is placed at the end of the film rather than layered sporadically.
With such a large ensemble cast, Widows occasionally struggles to maintain balance between its characters. Of the five women who lost their husbands, Carrie Coon’s Amanda is the weakest; she’s involved in an eventual plot twist but because of the lowered level of interactions, this character doesn’t feel like a full part of the narrative. Simultaneously the competing politics of Jack Mulligan (Colin Farrell) and Jamal Manning are off-screen at several intervals, making their presence slightly less impactful. Despite these gripes, everyone else does a splendid job; Viola Davies is excellent as always, her authoritative presence bringing the characters together, Michelle Rodriguez brings her typically rugged mannerisms to bear and Elizabeth Debicki vividly conveys the difficulties of an abusive childhood. What binds these women together is their shared grief and the way they learn to work together and overcome this feeling throughout the film; we see them use their talents in varying ways and witness the pieces fall into place when the heist finally gets underway.
Widows doesn’t quite reach the lofty heights of Steve McQueen’s previous films, but it still delivers a tightly focused, character-driven heist film that contextualises its action with very real social problems and an emotional drive that makes the characters worth caring about.
Rating: 4/5 Stars (Great)
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