After watching Widows, I can very confidently say that if you team up director Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave, Shame) and writer Gillian Flynn (Gone Girl, HBO’s Sharp Objects), I’m going to have my butt in a theater opening weekend. I’ve heard about Widows for months and saw the trailer the day before I saw the movie. And I still haven’t seen the whole trailer. I only needed to watch the first half of it to know that it was a movie I wanted to see immediately. McQueen, who was narrowly beaten out for Best Director (Alfonso Cuarón – Gravity), hardly seemed upset when, half an hour later, his 12 Years a Slave won topped Gravity (and others) for Best Picture of 2013. He’s been off the grid for the last five years (save for a few shorts), but he is back with a movie that might be better than any of his previous three masterpieces (12 Years a Slave, Shame, Hunger Strike). The only thing missing is an appearance by Michael Fassbender, but you won’t even notice.
Not only has McQueen delivered the best movie of 2018 (so far), but he’s brought the best ensemble of the year, one that will likely garner awards for a couple of people and a surefire one for the film’s protagonist Veronica (Viola Davis – Fences, The Help). And while some might think I’m crazy to suggest that her performance in Widows is better than her performances in Fences, The Help, or Doubt, I would counter that she led a star-studded cast in this movie. In contrast, while she was fantastic in her other three films, she wasn’t the center character. I am still upset that she was put up for Best Supporting Actress in 2016 Fences, an award she won) because that was a leading performance, and would have won Best Lead Actress. She and Denzel Washington were co-leads in Fences. But I digress.
In present-day Chicago, Veronica is married to Harry (Liam Neeson – Taken, The Grey). The film’s first scene shows them touching each other tenderly in bed before each gets up to start their day with a shot of liquor from Harry’s flask. Harry is a known criminal. But he keeps what he does to himself. As is said once during the movie, “A criminal is like a cop. They leave their work at work” or something like that. The film uses flashbacks, though not too many, to tell parts of its story. McQueen knows what he’s doing to make every scene, every frame, every word count. But we learn that the scene between Harry and Veronica is set at least one day in the past because we are then taken to a high-speed police chase. Harry is driving a van after he and his fellow criminals Florek (Jon Bernthal – Baby Driver, Wind River), Carlos (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo – Sicario: Day of the Soldado, The Magnificent Seven), and Jimmy (Coburn Goss – Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice) have pulled over the latest heist. Through a series of present-time events and quick flashbacks of their men’s relationships with their spouses, the crew is tossing spare tires, wrenches, boxes, and any other debris to slow down the patrol cars chasing them. The van eventually pulls into a warehouse where the crew is shot down before it explodes, its flames disfiguring the four men beyond recognition and burning up the $2 million potential paydays that went with it.
Left behind are the widows of the men; Veronica, Linda (Michelle Rodriguez – S.W.A.T., Blue Crush), Alice (Elizabeth Debicki – The Man From U.N.C.L.E., Everest), and Amanda (Carrie Coon – The Post, Gone Girl). Four women who have never met, whose actions of their deceased husbands will connect. This is the only place where the movie failed, more of which I will discuss in the next paragraph. However, the issue is the grieving process or the lack thereof. These four women, all who tragically lost their husbands, do not have time to process the loss. At best, we see Veronica going through the home and getting teary-eyed when she sees things that remind her of Harry. Linda is too busy losing her retail business as it was her husband’s, whose name was on the lease. Carlos was majorly down on his payments (a gambling addiction is alluded to), and now the men are repossessing what they can from the store that no longer belongs to Linda. Meanwhile, she has two young children at home and no one else to help care for them. Alice is also uncertain of where she will get the money. She was in an abusive relationship with Florek. Still, she stayed with him, primarily because of how sweet and apologetic he was after the abuse and because he was her meal ticket. Now, she has to support herself, and her skill set is limited. Her mother encourages her to become a high-end escort (Jacki Weaver – Silver Linings Playbook, The Five-Year Engagement). We don’t learn much about Amanda except that she is busy nursing a crying newborn.
Until now, we have yet to learn what’s going on. We have these four dead men and their four widows. We also have a looming election in Chicago after the powerful Tom Mulligan (Robert Duvall – The Judge, The Godfather) steps down from his position, leaving the door open for his son Jack (Colin Farrell – In Bruges, The Lobster) to continue the Mulligan reign of the city. However, through some shadiness, the lines of the district have been redrawn, forcing Jack to venture into the black neighborhoods where his opponent Jamal Manning (Brian Tyree Henry – FX’s Atlanta, White Boy Rick), a known crime lord, is shaving into his lead in the polls. We see Jack at a rally for an organization called Minority Women of Work, where he sees that women of color can get their businesses off the ground. One reporter presses him over another less ethical practice, and he walks away with his aide, Siobhan (newcomer Molly Kunz – The Penny). As they are being driven away, Jack complains to Siobhan about his insecurities running against Jamal and the pressure being faced by his father. It is Jack making it clear again that he has no interest in the underbelly, which is politics. His aide tells him he needs to suck it up.
The swing vote may lay in the voice of the local preacher Reverend Wheeler (Jon Michael Hill – Pass Over, Falling Overnight) and his wide influence. An endorsement by Reverend Wheeler for either candidate could put that candidate over. While he has backed the Mulligans in the past, he would also love to see a man of color in office, which would prompt Jamal’s visit. Reverend Wheeler knows Jamal is dirty and, as a result, does not say who he will endorse by the end of this meeting. McQueen does so well here to show that neither Jack nor Jamal cares about improving the city. Both talk about helping women of color start their own businesses and turning wrecked city landscapes into thriving communities. But he’s mostly running just because that is expected of him. Likewise, Jamal talks about improving the lives of those in Chicago, but he is just a power-hungry criminal.
And this is where our worlds meet. The $2 million that went up in flames with Harry and the three other husbands was stolen from Jamal Manning. He needs money for his campaign, and he wants it back. And he sends his number one henchman to get it. Daniel Kaluuya (Get Out, Black Panther) gives, in my opinion, the Best Supporting Actor performance of 2018. He is pure evil as Jatemme Manning, younger brother to Jamal. To think that this is the same young man who played the protagonist in Get Out just a year ago is almost mind-boggling. The way his eyes dart at others makes you scared for them. This is not a man you want to cross, and he seems to wait patiently for his brother to say, “Go rough ’em up.” To see that he is considered a “long shot” for a Best Supporting Actor nomination while Sam Elliot (A Star Is Born) clearly shows that those voting on these awards are often clueless. The Mannings want their two million dollars back and are prepared to do whatever it takes. They start by pressing Veronica about Harry’s affairs. Satisfied that she is unaware of what he did or of any other jobs coming up, they tell her that she has a month to get them their two million dollars back and point to her lovely house with all of its prized possessions and tell her he can start by liquidating all of the assets.
After this, Veronica is given a combination of a safe at the bank. Here is a booklet with plans for Harry’s next heist, which would have netted him $5 million. Veronica, a former teachers’ union executive (known by the Mannings), is the opposite of a criminal. But she’s desperate. She knows the Mannings will kill her if she doesn’t get them their money. And she is aware that the three other widows need cash, and if the husbands could pull off the crime, why can’t they? She gathers a meeting and tells them that the only thing in common is that their husbands all died together. Also, after the $2 million is returned to the manning, they can divide the other $3 million equally between them. But if you think this is starting to sound like a Sandra Bullock-led Ocean’s 8, please rest assured that it is not. This is Steve McQueen and Gillian Flynn. They couldn’t be funny if they tried. These two have much to say, none of which will be told with some goofy rom-com. If you think this movie is starting to sound like Ben Affleck’s The Town (one of the ten greatest films ever made), that’s a better comparison. Like The Town, there are many implausibilities, but you can overlook some because it is so good at so much else.
This movie is different than McQueen’s previous three movies, the mortification of his characters’ flesh via starvation (Hunger Strike), addiction (Shame), or enslavement (12 Years a Slave). I won’t say how it is different, though I have already hinted at the empowerment of women and the corruption of government. But there is something more, and you can figure it out if you’ve seen his others. Aspiring screenwriters feed this man your scripts. He will take your biggest hopes and dreams to the next level. A movie that did so many things correctly was the direction that brought it all together.
Ironically, I mentioned how Widows has the best ensemble cast of 2018. McQueen’s last movie (12 Years a Slave) had the best ensemble cast of 2013. While this movie would have worked with different pieces, it went from excellent to extraordinary through the performances of Davis and Kaluuya. Other standouts included Farrell, who kept improving after reinventing his career in 2006. Since the days of S.W.A.T., The Recruit, Daredevil, Miami Vice, etc., the roles he has chosen have transformed him into a character actor who will have a place in Hollywood for years and years to come. And if you’ve seen any of Michelle Rodriguez’s films, you know that she usually plays a confident badass who kicks butt and asks questions later. It was good to see some indecision in a character of hers, and that’s what she did in Widows, often providing the voice of conscience and questioning whether Veronica’s decisions were the best at a particular time.
Widows or A Star Is Born? One of the two will be my favorite movie of 2018.
Plot 9.5/10
Character Development 9.5/10
Character Chemistry 9.5/10
Acting 10/10
Screenplay 9/10 (I needed to see the grieving process of these widows after the deaths of their husbands. What was provided wasn’t enough)
Directing 9.5/10
Cinematography 10/10 (the beautiful and the ugly of present-day Chicago)
Sound 9.5/10
Hook and Reel 10/10 (a good police chase in the opening scene usually hooks a viewer pretty well)
Universal Relevance 10/10 (political corruption)
96.5%
A
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