NOVEMBER 15, 2018
By any standard, “Widows” is a smashing success.
“Widows” is the first film directed by Steve McQueen since he won an Oscar for 2012’s “12 Years a Slave.” Yes, I’ll admit that the choice of a heist movie as a follow-up to a Best Picture winner is a bit unusual. But McQueen is not a filmmaker who plays by the rules.
Based on a 35 year-old television series from Britain’s ITV network, “Widows” begins with a band of criminals, led by Harry Rawlings (Liam Neeson) who try to pull off a major robbery that goes south very quickly. Do the guys make it? No spoilers, but the film is called “Widows” after all.
The crooks’ surviving spouses, in the midst of their grief, each find themselves facing financial uncertainty. For example, Veronica (Viola Davis), Harry’s widow, is strong-armed by crime boss Jamal Manning (Brian Tyree Henry), who claims that the $2 million that Harry stole was his, and he wants repayment. And he wants it now. Jamal has even brought his enforcer Jamemme (a terrifying Daniel Kaluuya) to make sure she gets the message.
However, Veronica still holds Harry’s notebook, which lays out the plans for his next job well in advance, and she arranges a meeting with the other widows of the gang — clothing store owner Linda (Michelle Rodriguez), abused wife Alice (Elizabeth Debicki) and young mother Amanda (Carrie Coon) — to propose finishing the heist that their husbands planned to pull off. Her reasoning is that the police would never suspect them because they’re women who wouldn’t have the cajones to pull off such a job.
Amanda proves to be a no-show, but Linda and Alice are a go, and Linda pulls in her babysitter Belle (Cynthia Erivo, fresh off her great turn in “Bad Times at the El Royale”) to serve as the gang’s driver.
If McQueen had just left it there, “Widows” would still have been fine as a grittier gender-flip of a heist movie a la “Oceans 8.” But McQueen, as is his wont, is far more interested in broadening the landscape.
“Widows” is set in Chicago, a city is known for many things, including hot dogs, the Cubbies and deep-dish pizza. And, I almost forgot, political shenanigans. And that’s what McQueen blends into his heist narrative. It seems that the $2 million that Jamal wants repaid was to go to his political campaign to run for a legitimate seat as a Chicago alderman. Unfortunately, he’s running against attractive candidate Jack Mulligan (a terrific Colin Farrell), whose father Tom (Robert Duvall) is the kingmaker of Chicago politics, a kind of a Richard Daley type. And woe be it to anyone who runs against a Mulligan.
McQueen follows through on all of the big action scenes (the heist in particular has wonderfully unexpected twists and turns), but there’s also a sense of melancholy that pervades even the suspense scenes — these women have had someone whom they loved (to various degrees) who is now gone, and completing this heist would not only enrich them monetarily, but also provide each woman a sense of closure.
When McQueen brings together both the political and heist storyline together, the effect is devastating, both cynically and yet emotionally.
The acting here is top-notch. Among the men, Farrell delivers probably his best performance since 2015’s “The Lobster,” and Duvall is a welcome presence, lending the political storyline an extra bit of gravitas. Henry is powerful as Jamal, and Kaluuya will put a chill up your spine as his enforcer.
But it’s the women who rule in “Widows.” Rodriguez, who often goes big in her performances, very effectively dials it back as the owner of a clothing store who finds that her life may be trashed if she’s not all-in on the heist. Coon is properly mysterious as the widow with the biggest secret. But, for me, the film’s greatest surprise is Debicki, whose work about which I hadn’t known much but who here is such a presence as a woman at her financial wit’s end that she, encouraged by her pushy mom (Jacki Weaver), even considers becoming a call girl until Veronica shows up with a potential way out.
And then there is Viola Davis. Her Veronica has her own three stages of grief — heartbreak, then anger, then determination. And boy is she determined to get what she feels his rightfully hers. Davis is one of those actors who has put her time in honing her craft on the stage, and when the opportunity came to do films, she came prepared. That preparation shows in every frame of her performance, which is one of the very best of the year so far.
No matter if you’re looking for a gripping heist movie or a showcase for great actors, “Widows” should be your movie choice this weekend.
GRADE: A-
