Widows is the new film from 12 Years a Slave Director Steve McQueen. It stars Viola Davis, Elizabeth Debicki and Michelle Rodriguez as a group of women who attempt to pull off a heist in order to pay back the money their (dead) criminal husbands (including Liam Neeson) stole from a crime boss.
There is a lot to like in Widows. There is a uniformly talented cast. As well as the main cast of widows, we have interesting side characters like Colin Farrell as a slimy politician and Robert Duvall as his racist dad. While Brian Tyree Henry and Daniel Kaluuya play the criminals who force the widows to carry out the heist. I must single out Kaluuya here in particular, who plays a psychotic criminal brilliantly and has the best scene in the film (which involves some rapping, I won’t spoil it but its good and you know it must be good because normally I hate rapping!). Of the widows themselves I must single out Elizabeth Debicki, who has a really interesting role to play and is really good, as well as Viola Davis as the lead.
The script is interesting and Steve McQueen is clearly a talented director, there are some really interesting shots in it, with some interesting twists and turns in the plot.
My main issue would be that it possibly dragged in parts. We could have lost 10 minutes perhaps and the film would have been improved. Also, because there are so many characters, some feel a bit underdeveloped, perhaps, but its not too bad. Robert Duvall was also a slightly strange choice and some of his dialogue was a bit strange (I read that some of it was improvised and you can tell, it is a bit strange, It just feels a bit out of place with the rest of the scene).
Overall though, Widows is a good film, it is clearly a film the director and the cast were all passionate about and made work. It doesn’t have the same re-watch value of some other films I’ve seen in this genre, that perhaps comes from the length. But, I would recommend it. 3.5 Stars.
Movie Night 