Widows

Plot

Four women become widows overnight when their criminal husbands are killed in a police shootout, after stealing from a local mobster Jamal Manning, who is also a politician. The mobster now has given them one month to get his $2m back. So they plan to rob the Mulligan family who are up against Manning in an upcoming alderman election.

Direction

Some fairly decent direction from Steve McQueen, including a very well-choreographed 360 spin with some very violent end results. There was also a couple of interesting choices where the camera is mounted to the hood of a car while it travels a neighbourhood and the entire conversation between characters is heard.

Cast/Characters

A fairly congested cast, with the four widows (one who doesn’t partake in the operation) – Jack, his dad Tom, Manning and his team, the four dead criminals, plus Manning and his men…

Viola Davis plays the lead role of Veronica – whose husband Harry (Liam Neeson) was the leader of the group. The other two ladies in the group are Linda (Michelle Rodriguez and Alice (Elizabeth Debicki). Linda’s babysitter Belle (Cynthia Erivo) joins the group as the driver.

Colin Farrell is a little underused as Jack Mulligan and the legendary Robert DuVall plays his dad Tom

Brian Tyrell Henry and Daniel Kuluuya round up the cast as Manning and his right-hand man.

Screenplay/Setting/Themes

There seems to have a very ‘culturally significant’ dialogue and culture that I just couldn’t get my head around, being both Caucasian and Australian.

I found the character of Veronica just completely unlikeable in every way, and the secondary cast were written bizarrely – they all felt like wet blankets.

There is a somewhat surprising end of second act reveal, but the outcome from this is underwhelming and anticlimactic, considering it happens about 45 minutes before the end of the film.

There doesn’t really seem to be much of an outcome to some of the storylines, and they almost feel like they added story points that have no payoff.

Overall

I tried to like this, but I found the characters all too unlikeable (I actually empathised more with Manning than I did with the ‘good guys’. Despite its critical acclaim, I was not a fan.

2/5