Forget, Ocean’s 8! Widows is the heist movie for me. Steve McQueen usually offers sober, art house or issue movies such as Hunger or 12 Years a Slave, but he lets his hair down with this powerhouse film starring Viola Davis in this action packed, savvy, slick and sprawling thriller that occurs on the streets of Chicago.
Widows boasts an amazing story. There are multiple storylines. Even tertiary characters live full lives, play an important role and provide important clues even if it isn’t obvious until later in the movie. Imagine The Wire if you only had two hours and nine minutes to tell the story of a city, its inhabitants from all socioeconomic backgrounds and the movers and shakers of the underworld and in politics. It is also a heavily gendered world, and like any great classic Hollywood flick, the women have to pay for their undependable husbands’ mistakes, but because it is the twenty-first century, they can be bad too. When the men’s world encroaches on the women’s world, they learn that some people can only be bullied so much before they decide to fight back. It appears that women are at the bottom of every get rich scheme, respectable or not, and these ladies are ready to flip the script.
Even stripped of the heist storyline, Widows is still a great story about the individual characters and has a socially conscious soul. McQueen takes a swipe at the historically corrupt political machine of Chicago, the unhealthy proximity of crime to politics, extrajudicial executions and physical abuse without weighing down the proceedings or feeling like a cinematic version of an afterschool special. McQueen never forgets to entertain without losing the texture of reality.
Widows has an amazing ensemble cast. Come for Viola “Why is your penis on a dead girl’s phone” Davis, who will always get the best lines or make her lines seem the best, then stay for Elizabeth Debicki, who plays Alice and manages to go toe to toe with Davis without batting an eyelash. Out of all the characters, her situation is the most precarious because she seems to be the kicked dog in every room. She rises to the occasion because she is sick of just being valued for her looks and knows that she is capable of more.
Cynthia Erivo may not get many lines in Widows, but she makes them count, and her physical presence made me pray to Jesus that she gets more roles. Think of Erivio as the personification of Angela Bassett’s arms. I can’t wait to see her in Harriet, the Harriet Tubman bio pic, next year. She has a fan, and I just met her. The soundtrack paired with her running had me so hyped for the denouement. Get Out’s Daniel Kaluuya makes an intimidating villain and clearly is going for Vincent D’Onofrio’s crown. For once, Garret Dillahunt did not play a villain. Colin Farrell has always delivered great performances, and if his personal life did not detract from his resume early in his introduction to American screens, I think that he would get more respect, which he certainly deserves. He gets to go toe to toe with Robert Duvall so I’m sure that makes up for it. Brian Tyree Henry got to show more range in this film than in Hotel Artemis, and I was impressed. Michelle Rodriguez delivers a nuanced and more vulnerable performance than usual, but it did feel as if some of her work ended up on the cutting room’s floor. Even the damn dog can act! Go head, Olivia!
I want to watch Widows again just so I can fully appreciate McQueen’s dynamic camerawork. It is so easy to get wrapped up in the performances and the story that a viewer can take for granted that a visual masterpiece is before your eyes. I love Chicago, one of the greatest cities in the world, and it is clear that McQueen does too. He knows when to be still and when to keep moving. He changes his focus in ways that enhances the story, but can be counterintuitive. When Farrell’s character leaves a promotional event in a hurry, his usually silent assistant and he have a heated conversation in the car, but we can’t see them. The camera is on the hood of the car angled just past the shotgun seat’s window so you can see how the Chicago that he works in changes in affluence to the one that he lives in. We never see the real man, only hear his words, but we can see that he is full of crap. The intimate scenes between Davis and Liam Neeson (who looks like he isn’t feeling too well) were beautifully shot and did more to sell me on their love story in a handful of scenes than movies devoted to an entire romance. Pay close attention to what is a reflection and the real person as a hint to reality versus image as characters’ lives begin to crumble when compartmentalization is no longer possible.
While it may not be as commercially swanky as Ocean’s 8, it has a more authentic style representative of all socioeconomic spheres. Whether you’re an escort at a swanky restaurant, a widow at a graveside greeting dignitaries or a single mother running from job to job, if it was a glossy magazine, you would want to tear out every page to later mimic that look.
There is a twist in Widows, which flicked past my mind in the beginning then I dismissed until it is revealed in an epic waterfront shot. I did figure out the motive behind the original heist. I honestly did not want the movie to end so it felt rushed to me. It is not the kind of movie that would be spoiled if there were a sequel, but I kind of want one anyway if McQueen could figure out how to make it work without ruining what came before. There were no hanging threads except just because you get rid of a rabid dog doesn’t mean that the person holding his leash won’t still come after you. I could have missed something because I did have an ill-timed bathroom break.
Apparently Widows is based on a British TV series, which I did not know before I watched this film. I have no idea if I will watch the series, but I loved Steve McQueen’s take on Widows, which brings hyperlink cinema to the heist film without feeling as heavy-handed as Traffic, Syriana and Babel and without losing the intimacy of these international thrillers. It is Crash for people with taste and a heart. Definitely rush to see it in theaters while you can, but if you miss it, watch it with the lights off and no distractions. It is a smart movie that does not spoon feed its audience, but you can still enjoy with a bucket of popcorn and your favorite beverage. I’m just mad that it feels as if Ocean’s 8 got more attention since Widows is the better film in terms of complex depictions of people in the real world on screen. It showed the ugliness of the world in a beautiful way.