After seeing Fantastic Beasts I decided to stay at the theatre and check out Steve McQueen's new film Widows, a movie I've been very excited for. I love heist films, I love a lot of the cast, and despite not having seen much of his filmography I was excited because of Steve McQueen. Gillian Flynn who wrote Gone Girl also co-wrote the script with McQueen so that was just another reason to be amped.
In this film we see a group of criminals killed during a heist gone wrong. Their now widowed wives take up the mantle to finish a job in order to keep themselves safe from the men their husbands' robbed. The men they robbed also just so happen to be in the midst of a political campaign, adding another layer to the events transpiring.
The four widows (rolls credits) taking on the job are played by Viola Davis, Elizabeth Debicki, Michelle Rodriguez, and Cynthia Erivo. Davis is great as always. She balances power with weakness, taking hold of the situation but having trouble with the pressures her husband left for her. Davis is a superstar so she's had better performances, but this is still a very solid one. Debicki is surprisingly really good. She was great earlier this year in The Tale, and built on that here. She is clearly a fish out of water trying to adapt to life and I think she portrayed that well. Michelle Rodriguez played Michelle Rodriguez in this film. This is no different that her past roles, and she feels out of place amongst an ensemble of a-list talent. Her performance isn't bad per say, but doesn't meet the rest of the film. Cynthia Erivo doesn't have near as much screen time as her co-stars, but is quite good. With her work in this film and Bad Times at the El Royale I have a feeling that Erivo will be brining in some bigger roles in the near future. The leaders of the group all the husbands robbed are played by Bryan Tyree Henry and Daniel Kaluuya. Henry's character is running in an election, so we see a blend of his streetwise toughness and his political intelligence. I think he did a great job, but was unfortunately shadowed by Kaluuya. Kaluuya plays a sort of enforcer for Henry, and while some have criticized him for the role being generic, I think he is the highlight of the film. He takes the role of a tough bad guy and brings a brilliant performance to it. The character may be nothing special, but the physicality Kaluuya presents and the strong acting he does with his eyes make the character terrifying. It's probably unlikely that he gets an Oscar nomination, but the way he portrays his character's mannerisms and instills fear make this one of my favourite performances of the year. There are other big names in the film such as Colin Farrell, Liam Neeson, Robert Duvall, and Jon Bernthal, but none of them bring anything new that I find worth discussing.
Steve McQueen takes a unique approach to the heist film with Widows. While many heist films have a sense of fun to them like Ocean's Eleven and Baby Driver, focusing most of the film around the planning and execution of the heist. Widows feels much more like a drama than that. While the planning of the heist is a big plot point, McQueen tends to focus more on how his characters handle grief rather than the excitement of the crime. I found the films script to have some highs and lows. As a whole, McQueen and Flynn's dialogue is really great, and the way the story handles grief and adjustment is really great. The political sub-plot doesn't always work, and at times distracts from the central story. I also think the actual heist could have more to it, it feels a bit rushed and if built up more could have been awesome. Other than that I loved the technical elements of the film. The cinematography has some incredible moments. There is a great amount of camera movement and interesting framing, and the staging of one shot towards the end blew me away. While I don't always love the writing I think McQueen did a great job directing. This film doesn't have the rawness and emotional of his other work but still works very well. The score is composed by Hans Zimmer, and while not as epic as some of his work it is still solid.
This film has some mediocre elements, but as a whole is a unique take on the heist film. I loved a lot of the cast and the cinematography was excellent. Even if the rest of the film sucked, I'd suggest you see it just for Daniel Kaluuya, his performance is one of the year's best.
Rating: 4.1/5
Written by Matt McKenzie
The four widows (rolls credits) taking on the job are played by Viola Davis, Elizabeth Debicki, Michelle Rodriguez, and Cynthia Erivo. Davis is great as always. She balances power with weakness, taking hold of the situation but having trouble with the pressures her husband left for her. Davis is a superstar so she's had better performances, but this is still a very solid one. Debicki is surprisingly really good. She was great earlier this year in The Tale, and built on that here. She is clearly a fish out of water trying to adapt to life and I think she portrayed that well. Michelle Rodriguez played Michelle Rodriguez in this film. This is no different that her past roles, and she feels out of place amongst an ensemble of a-list talent. Her performance isn't bad per say, but doesn't meet the rest of the film. Cynthia Erivo doesn't have near as much screen time as her co-stars, but is quite good. With her work in this film and Bad Times at the El Royale I have a feeling that Erivo will be brining in some bigger roles in the near future. The leaders of the group all the husbands robbed are played by Bryan Tyree Henry and Daniel Kaluuya. Henry's character is running in an election, so we see a blend of his streetwise toughness and his political intelligence. I think he did a great job, but was unfortunately shadowed by Kaluuya. Kaluuya plays a sort of enforcer for Henry, and while some have criticized him for the role being generic, I think he is the highlight of the film. He takes the role of a tough bad guy and brings a brilliant performance to it. The character may be nothing special, but the physicality Kaluuya presents and the strong acting he does with his eyes make the character terrifying. It's probably unlikely that he gets an Oscar nomination, but the way he portrays his character's mannerisms and instills fear make this one of my favourite performances of the year. There are other big names in the film such as Colin Farrell, Liam Neeson, Robert Duvall, and Jon Bernthal, but none of them bring anything new that I find worth discussing.
Steve McQueen takes a unique approach to the heist film with Widows. While many heist films have a sense of fun to them like Ocean's Eleven and Baby Driver, focusing most of the film around the planning and execution of the heist. Widows feels much more like a drama than that. While the planning of the heist is a big plot point, McQueen tends to focus more on how his characters handle grief rather than the excitement of the crime. I found the films script to have some highs and lows. As a whole, McQueen and Flynn's dialogue is really great, and the way the story handles grief and adjustment is really great. The political sub-plot doesn't always work, and at times distracts from the central story. I also think the actual heist could have more to it, it feels a bit rushed and if built up more could have been awesome. Other than that I loved the technical elements of the film. The cinematography has some incredible moments. There is a great amount of camera movement and interesting framing, and the staging of one shot towards the end blew me away. While I don't always love the writing I think McQueen did a great job directing. This film doesn't have the rawness and emotional of his other work but still works very well. The score is composed by Hans Zimmer, and while not as epic as some of his work it is still solid.
This film has some mediocre elements, but as a whole is a unique take on the heist film. I loved a lot of the cast and the cinematography was excellent. Even if the rest of the film sucked, I'd suggest you see it just for Daniel Kaluuya, his performance is one of the year's best.
Rating: 4.1/5
Written by Matt McKenzie
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