When Steve McQueen delivered 12 Years a Slave, it was a cinematic announcement to the world that a filmmaker was going to leave us a cinematic legacy of litmus tests for our society, past and present. His latest, Widows, may seem like an enormous departure. In fact, it is not. It uses the heist genre to still get across a point about our society that is all-too powerful.
Widows is an empowering story of a group of women whose husbands work on the other side of the law. Those husbands steal $2 million from the wrong guy and as they are making their getaway, their van blows up in a hail of police bullets—killing all involved and burning that cash to ash. These widows do not have many options to take care of themselves anymore, much less their families.
Then, the other foot drops in the form of a crew representing a local Chicago gangster (Brian Tyree Henry’s Jamal Manning) and a chilling to the core Daniel Kaluuya as his muscle-brother, Jatemme Manning, arrive at Veronica’s (Viola Davis) front door. All they want is their $2 million and they don’t care how the widows get it, they just must get it, or they will meet the same fate as their husbands.
Davis is a force of nature and watching her go from grieving widow to soul trying to save her own future is a master class in titanic thespian talents. The way she is able to be an emotional mess one minute and a pillar of strength for the other widows is uncanny. She gathers them because she’s discovered her late husband has left plans for his next job and it was set to get them $5 million.
Linda (Michelle Rodriguez) is now a single mom, with kids to feed and shelter. Her clothing store has recently been repossessed by the bank. Alice (Elizabeth Debicki) is newly single and yes, she’s not crying over a husband who abused her, but she is desperate to support herself in any way possible now that the household income has gone down to zero. Having her mother (Jacki Weaver’s Agnieska) breathing down her neck and even suggesting selling her body for a living is not helping—yet it paints the picture of desperation that all these women share now that their husbands are gone.
The crew is filled out with Linda’s babysitter, brilliantly played by Cynthia Erio, who recently stole scenes from an entire ensemble in Bad Times at the El Royale. In Widows, she gets to flex some non-singing muscles and reaches that raised bar that all the actors hit and surpass on this brilliant picture. Colin Farrell plays the son, Jack Mulligan, of a city alderman, Tom Mulligan (the incomparable Robert Duvall) who has a history with Veronica’s husband Harry (Liam Neeson). When she approaches him for thoughts on how to help, Jack washes his hands of the memory of Harry.
Our women are being pushed into a corner and when they break out, it is not going to be pretty for those who get in their way.
The way that McQueen paints a picture is so sublimely beautiful, regardless of the subject that the camera is pointed at. There are some truly seedy folks in the universe of Widows, as there were (obviously) in 12 Years a Slave. But there is something incredibly gorgeous about how he captures people on screen—regardless of where they fall on the honorable spectrum. The fact that he chose a heist flick as his follow-up to his last, Oscar-winning effort, shows his supreme confidence in his craft and deservedly so. His command of not only what the camera portrays, but how the written word is brought to life are strokes of genius. He is clearly an actor’s actor as each turns in some of their best work to date—and yes, that is saying something given that several of those performers have Oscars and Emmys.
Davis, what can be said. She is easily one of our most talented actresses of any generation. The power she possesses to extol through her character is explosive. What is even more impressive is how she brings out the best of those who share scenes with her, especially Rodriguez. The Fast and Furious veteran culls emotive power never seen prior. Debicki plays her role like a fish out of water, who quickly learns to walk instead of flopping helplessly on the ground. She dazzles and provides a large dose of the inspiration that has everyone involved in this heist believing that there is nothing they can’t do if they work together and keep to their principles. They were wronged, and now they—not anyone else—is going to make it right.
In anyone else’s hands, a story about corrupt Chicago politicians, a gang of robbers and the women who love them, could have had the seismic impact of a feather landing on earth. Instead, through the ensemble, the film’s director and probably most importantly, it’s screenwriter (Gillian Flynn, Gone Girl), Widows leaves the audience feeling as if we’ve just experienced “The Big One.”
Grade: A