Creating a heist thriller in itself can be both a daunting and challenging task as each director must bring their own stamp to the story in a ultimate demonstration of their pure craftsmanship as filmmakers. In the case of
Widows, director Steve McQueen sets out to create his own heist drama with a talented ensemble cast and a strong message, which says that survival is a powerful motivator with the story being designed in a vein similar to heist classics such as Michael Mann's
Heat. Though designed to appear as being popcorn entertainment, there's many layers to
Widows that make it run deeper than just being a mindless heist thriller with it carrying themes revolving around politics and today's societal issues such as crime, impoverished communities, the death of a child or loved one, betrayal, and opportunism. With
Widows, McQueen not only sets out to make an entertaining heist thriller, he aims to make a thought-provoking crime drama that's reflective of the many issues that people within today's society face, and shows how far these issues push people in doing whatever it takes to survive with survival being a powerful motivator for people to do questionable things.
The plot for
Widows takes place in Chicago with the story revolving around four women (Played by Viola Davis, Michelle Rodriguez, Elizabeth Debicki, and Cynthia Erivo), who share nothing in common except having to resolve illicit debts left behind by the criminal activities of their deceased husbands. The best way to describe
Widows is that it's twisty in terms of unraveling its plot as there's new revelations and shocking reveals always coming up with characters. The story aims to paint itself as being a heist thriller, but takes an alternative approach while doing so with the narrative of the four widows playing out as being both a gritty and personal family drama mixed together with the films overall premise. The film places these women as its primary focus with the audience seeing their desperation turn them into partners in crime to settle their debts. The film also utilizes a political landscape with the story being set in Chicago with the subplot involving the two candidates running against each other for the position of mayor in the same district. What's remarkable about
Widows is how it plays out as being a crime drama, but its themes and message run much deeper than that. While it might not have been the intense action thriller that audiences were expecting it to be depending on its marketing, it serves as being an entertaining, bold, and thought-provoking thriller that has an admirable amount of depth to it largely thanks to the terrific ensemble cast it carries as well as Steve McQueen's skillful craftsmanship as a filmmaker.
As well-written and directed as
Widows comes across as being, it's the performances delivered by its powerful ensemble cast that make it as good as it ultimately turns out to be. The performances delivered by the main cast are stellar with everyone being on top form here regardless of how large or minimal their roles are. Everyone manages to bring the same level of enthusiasm and energy to the story with the best performances coming from the actresses playing the four widows themselves. The films strongest performance comes from Viola Davis in the main leading role as Veronica, Chicago teachers union delegate and widow of Harry (Played by Liam Neeson). Davis brings a lot of power to her role and does fantastic job of conveying her characters grief over the loss of both her son and husband as well as the anger over losing both, the confusion behind hearing that he left behind an unpaid debt that's now entrusted to her to pay off, and playing the strict leadership role in regards to the female widows successfully completing their heist. Davis plays the part to masterful perfection and becomes the soul of the film. Michelle Rodriguez also impresses as the widow of Carlos and clothing store owner named Linda. Rodriguez is convincing in her role as a poverished mother, who loses her store and is forced to join Davis team to settle her debt. She gives one of her strongest acting performances since Girlfight. Elizabeth Debicki does well as Alice, widow of Florek who ends up becoming a sugar baby to support herself after her husbands death. Carrie Coon also shines as Amanda, widow of Jimmy (Played by Courbon Goss) who doesn't get involved with Veronica's group, and Cynthia Erivo as Linda's babysitter and beautician Belle, who looks after the latter's children and joins Veronica's group at the last minute. The rest of the cast deliver both strong and notable performances with Colin Farrell and Robert Duvall doing equally solid jobs as politician Jack Mulligan and Duvall as his bigoted father Tom Mulligan, whose at constant odds with his son. The rest of the supporting cast proves effective in their roles with Brian Tyree Henry as crime boss and politician Jamal Hanning, who forces Veronica into paying her husbands debt. Daniel Kaluuya steals the show as Jamal's brother and brutal mob enforcer Jatemme Manning, along with Lukas Haas as real estate developer David whom Alice shares a mutual relationship with. As for the role of the husbands (All of whom happen to be apart of Harry's crew), Liam Neeson's role as Veronica's husband Harry is minimal with him being mostly reduced to flashbacks, but he still manages to make the most of his part with turning out a noteworthy performance with the same being said for Jon Bernthal as Alice's abusive husband Florek, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo as Linda's gambler husband Carlos, and Coburn Goss as Amanda's husband Jimmy. The cast for
Widows is a sizable one with each actor or actress getting their appropriate moments to shine with their roles. All of the performances range from being good to outstanding with the best work coming from the actresses playing the widows followed by Farrell, Duvall, and Kaluuya. The only actor that's a disappointment to see their role minimalized is Liam Neeson given how important his character is in the story despite the performance he gives being good. With
Widows, McQueen puts together a fantastic casting ensemble that all work together in regards to bringing both their characters, as well as the story to life with the widow team demonstrating strong chemistry as a team.
The films directing by Steve McQueen proves to be a strong effort with McQueen keeping the narrative focused with all the numerous subplots involving the various widows along with the conflict between politicians. He takes a genre that's no stranger to audiences and adds a different kind of flavor to the proceedings with the end result working well as both a slick form of entertainment, as well as a powerful drama about how desperation pushes people to do unthinkable things in order to survive. The film is well shot with brilliant cinematography, that showcases the South Side of Chicago's grittiness along with it's poverty-stricken neighborhoods. The flashbacks that Viola Davis character experiences when remembering Harry or her son are presented in a dream-like fashion, that makes those moments emotionally powerful for the audience with them getting a sense of the loss her character feels. The films pacing is slow-burning with minimal scenes of action but what keeps the audience engaged with the story, is the unfolding of the plot as well as its twist and turns with the cast delivering exceptional performances. The films score by Hans Zimmer is effective in regards to adding both suspense and tension to the film, while enhancing the films emotional moments. On the surface,
Widows is a well-packaged and put together crime drama, that's expertly shot and well-crafted with McQueen giving the film a visual flare that fits with the emotional core of the story. Through his cast of terrific ensembles, he manages to get subtle yet powerful performances out of them by letting them have enough free reign to play their roles and bring the story to life on the big screen. What could've easily ended up being standard work for a heist thriller turns out to be such, that demonstrates tremendous skill and thoughtfulness that clearly went into differentiating the film from other crime dramas. McQueen gives the impression that he's a filmmaker whose very knowledgeable of film history, and designs
Widows to be a crime thriller in a vein similar to a Michael Mann type film with political undercuttings inserted into the plot.
As for the films screenplay, the script also written by McQueen with Gillian Flynn as co-writer, is both smartly written and well put together with the story arcs revolving around all four widows being well-established and weaving together smoothly. The balancing of each arc feels even with each character receiving the appropriate character development and background information to make their motives both understandable and sympathetic to the audience. The inclusion of the films political undertones is also handled well with those elements not feeling like they have overdominance over the rest of the story. The film clearly has something to say regarding how the issue of poverty and desperation can push people to do unethical and corrupt things in order to get by with the four widows shown to be pushed into their plan to steal from a wealthy yet corrupt politician in order to manage their debts. The script shows how these women didn't begin a life of crime but were essentially left with debts their husbands left behind, giving them no choice but to pay the tab themselves. The audience see's this with Veronica's character being harassed and threatened by Jamal Manning, who needs more money to finance his campaign against Jack Mulligan. The script also shows how hustling has become a way for both regular citizens, as well as politicians in Chicago in order to remain afloat with not just the widows hustling to pay off their debts, but Manning and Mulligan's characters both scheming and plotting to sabotage each others campaign in order to remain on top with both sides having shady dealings going on which involve crime. The script also deals with the struggle of bearing one's family name as Jack Mulligan struggles with living in the shadow of his racist father (Played by Duvall), who disguises himself as being an ally of the black community. The script for
Widows has many layers to it which add to the twist and turns the story takes with subplots revealing lies, deception, and betrayal also coming into play here that makes the audience question what they previously thought about certain characters up to that point. While the heist remains the main focus of the plot, the film builds up to that moment with the establishing of all its key players with everyone having ties to the crime along with their motivations for doing so being made abundantly clear. What McQueen and Flynn do so well with the screenplay is create complex characters, that all have faces and personalities with the audience having full knowledge of who everyone is and why their involved with the heist. As
Widows shows and emphasizes with its script, survival is portrayed as a game and everyone in the film is shown playing it with different methods of reaching that goal. Everyone's story is connected with their motives and intentions made clear with the audience ultimately being the jury on what's right and what's wrong regarding the whole situation.
The most notable trait about
Widows in the end is not that it desires to be an exciting popcorn heist thriller, but how much it desires to be different from all the others. The audience has seen numerous heist and crime drama films before, but McQueen manages to take the genre and steer it in another direction, that's both intriguing and reflective of today's society and the problems it inherits. He achieves this by weaving together all these storylines, that prove effective while relating them to situations and people that fit today's world. Even surprise twist moments such as Veronica and Harry's son being a victim of a fatal police shooting prove effective in showing how the family ultimately got torn apart by the tragedy and ultimately pushed towards a life of crime.
Widows is a superb heist thriller/drama that's powerfully acted, smartly written, expertly directed, and absolutely sincere in it's desire to be more than just a generic crime thriller that audiences have seen before many times. The film not only offers thrills, but brains and a self-reflection of many issues currently harming society with the story showing people essentially trampling over each other for their own self-interests or bottom line. While certain subplots or characters could've used more elaboration despite them being effective nonetheless (Liam Neeson's character feels severely underused here despite his character being deceased), all of the actors deliver top notch performances with not one single member of the cast disappointing. The film might've been longer than it needed to be with minimal moments where certain scenes go into question regarding whether it needed to be included in the film, but the overall story maintains a firm grip on the audiences interest from start to finish.
Widows is not like most heist thrillers and takes noticeable pride in it's accomplishment with McQueen's distinctive directing elevating it above being another forgettable crime thriller. One hopes that future directors will be inspired to take a similar approach with the genre in the unique yet grand form that McQueen and writer Flynn conducted here.
Widows is one of the most underrated films of 2018 that should've garnered Viola Davis a well-earned Academy Award nomination for Best Actress in a lead role for her emotionally-charged performance.
Final Verdict: For those who enjoy heist thrillers and crime dramas with a stellar ensemble cast, Steve McQueen's
Widows is worth the watch if one has patience for its slow-burn pacing.
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