Review of Widows (2018) by James R — 01 Dec 2018

Director Steve McQueen is easily one of my favorite directors working today. Each one of his films hits you in just the right spots. From the horrific imagery in Hunger (2008) to the absolute sexual tension in Shame (2011) we get a bit of everything from McQueen.

His last film 12 Years a Slave (2013) was one of the most powerful movies I watched in 2013 and I am glad to say that although it doesn't reach the heights of the previous mentioned film Widows is another film where McQueen switches genres, but still maintains his artistic feel to it all.

Mostly a heist film, but much deeper than that Widows follows Veronica Rawlings (Viola Davis) who after her husband Harry (Liam Neeson) and his crew of men are killed during a heist gone wrong is in a bit of a rut.

A politician named Jamal Manning (Brian Tyree Henry) had 2 million dollars stolen by Harry and his crew, but it was destroyed in a firefight with the police. He gives Veronica one month to get the 2 million dollars, or else.

Veronica gathers the widows of Harry's crew which includes: Linda (Michelle Rodriguez) a dress shop owner with kids and Alice (Elizabeth Debicki) a young lady that's never quite stood up for herself.

Together the three women plan a heist from a notebook Harry left that will get them the money they need to pay back Manning and also have enough to set them up for possibly the rest of their lives. Little do they know this begins to uncover an even more sinister plot involving another politician named Jack Mulligan (Colin Farrell) and his father Tom (Robert Duvall).

The film also stars Daniel Kaluuya as Jatemme Manning, Jamal's psychotic brother (and a scene stealer in every scene he's in), and Cynthia Erivo as Belle, a driver the widows pick up later in the film to assist with the heist.

Overall, it's a great film. It has some good pacing and has a twist to the film that I did not see coming. The action and suspense here is pretty light, but the real meat of the movie is the overall meaning here of relationships with your past and how it effects the future.

We see this with the politicians, we see this with Veronica's flashbacks. It's incredibly well done. It's also a film about not living in the shadows of others. Turthfully, these women had some really asshole husbands and they're in this mess because of them, but also because they continued to live their lives this way.

It's refreshing to see a take on strong female roles where they actually pick themselves up from the ground and do something about it. Director Steve McQueen brings his style and flair to this film and it shows.

There are some very artsy shots here (a scene with Jack Mulligan shot entirely from one scene to the next is incredibly well done) and overall the cinematography is wonderful mixed with the score. I liked the acting here and performances as well.

As mentioned before Kaluuya is absolutely fantastic as a villain here. I enjoyed him the most since he's so damn crazy. The film's middle section does slow down just a bit slightly and at the very end Veronica does do something that I found just a bit questionable and too Hollywood for me, but those are seriously my only gripes.

I would highly recommend checking this one out!