Widows is directed by Steve McQueen and stars Viola Davis, Michelle Rodriguez, and Colin Farrell. It tells the story of a group of widows, who must come up with a large sum of money that their dead husbands stole.Steve McQueen is one of the best directors working today, having won an Oscar for his work on the film 12 Years a Slave. But that movie came out almost 7 years ago, and he hadn't come out with a feature film since. Widows was near the top of my list for most anticipated of the year, so I was very excited to finally get a chance to watch it.
Widows shines through the strength of the performances and the technical craft on display. Each widow gets her chance to shine, but Michelle Rodriguez was surprisingly the strongest of the female leads. Having only seen her in Fast and Furious movies beforehand, the range on display and the vulnerability she showed really shocked me. But the stand out performance of the movie came from last year's breakout star, Daniel Kaluuya. He plays the brother/hitman for Jamal Manning, a local politician trying to win the Alderman position. The menace Kaluuya shows brought chills every time he was on the screen. The innocence he showed in Get Out quickly disappears from the moment he steps on screen. I would not be surprised if he is up for an award at the end of this year.
McQueen again shows why he is a master of his craft through this technical showcase. The opening of the film splits between an intimate moment between husband and wife and a bank robbery going horribly wrong. This helps to show that even through the more bombastic moments of the movie, the director still wants to focus on the humanity within his characters. One of the standout scenes includes a three minutes long shot outside of a limo. The car starts in a low income predominately African-American neighborhood and moves into a middle class predominately white neighborhood in this short amount of time. Without the use of cuts, the viewer begins to realize just how close the worlds are, despite the perceived differences of how they live.
But Widows was not without its share of issues. One issue I had with the movie was the lack of closure. A lot of plot threads were left dangling as credits rolled. I would have liked to see where some of the stories ended up, and could have used an extra 25 minutes or so with these characters.
Not necessarily an issue but more personal preference, I felt as though the political race underlying the heist of the movie was more compelling and engaged me more as a viewer. Without getting too far into it, much of the movie focuses on a Chicago race for a vacated Alderman seat. Much of the politics and dirty dealing made for quite an exciting time, even if it was not what I had initially signed up for.
Widows is a very solid piece of filmmaking, with some great performances and technical marvels. But at the end of the day I was hoping for a little more heist and a little less political drama, even if the political drama was the more inspired piece of filmmaking.
When should you see it?
Wait a Week