Review of Widows (2018) by Foxgrove — 16 Nov 2018

'Let's Go' exclaims Viola Davis around the 2 hour mark of what has up to this point proved to be a tedious and unexciting venture purportedly based on the British 80's tv series. One suspects that she should have made this remark to director Steve McQueen a lot earlier. The subsequent 20 minutes do nothing to redress the balance and the film ends up a long and pretentious dud demonstrating no 'GO' whatsoever.

The cast do their best with Davis demonstrating one pained expression after another and Elizabeth Debicki providing eye catching support. However, it is Robert Duvall who really brings his few scenes to life as the retiring politician disenchanted with the political path being taken by his son (Colin Farrell). McQueen seems to be better at handling more complex/important issues in films like '12 Years a Slave' and 'Shame'. His direction here is as slow as a tethered tortoise lacking any urgency or pace that the genre requires. The routine screenplay doesn't help and the movie ends up feeling messily truncated in many scenes, although at nearly 2 and a quarter hours tighter editing would have been a welcome relief.

The final heist is an almost insignificant let down and the film on the whole is a major disappointment. Also what is it about Daniel Kaluuya that has critics reaching for superlatives? His appeal definitely eludes me! The best thing about this misconceived enterprise is the end titles song by Sade called 'The Big Unknown'.