Widows - Review

Widows

Oscar Winning Director Steve R. McQueen (12 Years A Slave) corals a stellar cast including Oscar Winners Viola Davis and Robert Duval, along with Oscar nominees Llam Neeson (Shindler’s List) and Daniel Kaluuya (Sicario and Get Out) and rounded out with  Jon Bernthal (Sicario and The Walking Dead), Michelle Rodriquez (Fast and Furious), Colin Farrell (Miami Vice), Carrie Coon (Gone Girl and Fargo 3), Brain Henry (FX’s Atlanta), Garret Dillahunt (Deadwood and Fear the Walking Dead), Lukas Haas ( Witness and The Revenant) and Jacki Weaver (Silver Linings Playbook and Animal Kingdom) in the modern day heist drama “Widows”.

“Widows” a screenplay developed by McQueen and Gillian Flynn and based upon the British 1983 ITV series of the same name has the film story taking place in 2008 Chicago where we see early Harry Rawlings (Liam Neeson) a renowned thief and his crew of partners Carlos (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo), Florek (Jon Bernthal), and Jimmy (Coburn Goss). Harry is happily married for 20 years to Veronica (Davis) a high-ranking officer with the Chicago Teachers Union who has essentially looked the other way all these many years to her husband’s career in crime.

One day when the heist of a lifetime goes horribly wrong, Harry and his partners are all killed in blaze of gun fire shootout with Chicago PD. Veronica living in a state of shock at the loss of her husband has her pain even more magnified when a South Side Chicago crime boss named Jamal Manning (Brian Henry) running for political office pays a visit to her apartment and gives Veronica a month’s time to pay back the $2 million that went up in flames with Harry and his gang’s botched robbery.

Left with virtually no means of paying Jamal off legitimately, the widows, Veronica, Linda, Alice and Belle, have nothing in common except their debt left behind by their spouses' criminal activities. Hoping to forge a solution on their own terms, the collection of women join forces to pull off a heist that their husbands were planning to remedy their do or die deadline situation.

REVIEW: “Widows” is less a crime heist caper and more to paraphrase Winston Churchill “a crime riddle, wrapped in a crime mystery, inside a crime enigma”.  With a 2:10 minutes running time, it’s a cellular microscopic examination of small-time players in a big city environment encompassing all levels of the social economic strata who are intertwined at the metaphoric street intersection of “Devious and Deceit Blvd.”. Where criminal corruption and need for power are their singular motivating means for prosperity and personal survival. And without any relevance to race, sexual orientation, economic class, religious and politics their brazen willingness to use deceit is the one common denominator they all share.

The film's trailer seems to be marketing the theme of a group of mournful crestfallen women who quickly turn bad ass taking demonstrative charge of their lives. For me I found a more subdued theme of women who were initially naive and are the constant unfortunate victims of being undervalued and oppressed at every turn exclusively by men. Where only in the very last few minutes of the movie we see them garnering their full measure of empowerment, strength and personal redemption rectifying a dire situation that was never really of their own making. The fact is the only thing I could see they were really guilty of;......... of having any shared identity with one another (retrospectively speaking) is that they “chose poorly” when it came to spouses and fathers of their children.

Overall, we see on the screen a tapestry of criminals and crime and eventual meaningful self-discovery.  But it also a tapestry where the multiple subplots encapsulated under the heading of “crime drama” does lose some of its focus as to who is the primary story the director is actually trying to tell. Conceptually its a very imaginative idea, but it appears McQueen is trying to tie way too many genres of players both good and diabolical from so many backgrounds into one tight thematic package that it gets a little fuzzy at times on the film’s journey who is what, when and how..

“Widows” does work well with its sharp and snappy dialogue, stark execution, powerful emotional moments and an amazing commanding performance by Viola Davis. It also has some scenes that are as truly imaginative including one where you hear two people for about 3 good minutes without ever seeing their faces argue intensely. Literally moving in a blacked out window limousine car you see a powerful simultaneous use of camera and dialogue as we feel the raw tension between the two people without ever seeing the anger expressed on their faces. It’s a fabulously executed scene.

To his credit Director McQueen has made an intricately stylish, bold, nuanced and astute film. A deep dark melancholy tale of the many personal and varying contradictions that exist in a modern, free capitalistic society and country. A power obsessed society and country we call America. Where some individuals freely choose criminal behavior both great and small, on any economic level as their legitimate pathway to financial success. A dark belief that to be completely unencumbered  while operating outside the normal realms of human morality and decency makes them no less an honest American as anyone else.

In, “Widows” you witness four saintly women who by an inevitable necessity become criminals. With a blink of an eye they were no longer living ordinary lives. With a blink of an eye criminality became their business. And in the blink of an eye they were no longer naïve women but a focus team about the business of getting paid……. just like everyone else in America. 

3.75 Stars