A police shootout leaves four thieves dead during an explosive armed robbery attempt in Chicago. Their widows have nothing in common except a debt left behind by their spouses' criminal activities. Hoping to forge a future on their own terms, they join forces to pull off a heist.
Director Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave) and Gone Girl author Gillian Flynn co-wrote the screenplay for his crazy-intense looking crime thriller starring queen of all queens, Viola Davis. Those three names are honestly all it would take to lure us to a theater, but it actually gets better: the film, based on Lynda La Plantes novel of the same name, follows four women whose duplicitous husbands deaths lead them down a dangerous path.
Director Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave) and Gone Girl author Gillian Flynn co-wrote the screenplay for his crazy-intense looking crime thriller starring queen of all queens, Viola Davis. Those three names are honestly all it would take to lure us to a theater, but it actually gets better: the film, based on Lynda La Plantes novel of the same name, follows four women whose duplicitous husbands deaths lead them down a dangerous path.
Widows co-stars everyone, basically, including Daniel Kaluuya, Michelle Rodriguez, Jacki Weaver, Colin Farrell, and Liam Neeson. Think: Good Girls meets Oceans 11, but the comedic elements are replaced by Davis staring soulfully into the (incredibly bleak) distance.
This film contains two movies, and I enjoyed one of them:
Widows is the story of a trio of...well, widows, who hatch a scheme to pull off a heist. The reason why the widows choose to pull off this heist in the first place is a threat by gangster-turned-political-hopeful Jamal Manning (played by Brian Tyree Henry). It was his money that the deceased husbands of the women were trying to steal before dying in an explosion set off by a hail of police bullets. The money burned up in the flames, and he wants to be repaid. Veronica Rawlings (played by Viola Davis) comes into possession of the plans for a future robbery that her husband Harry (played by Liam Neeson) was planning, and with no other options she and the other women decide to use th...
Arguably longer than it had to be, particualrly when a lot of side-stories had little context and zero payoff. But there is not a single member of this cast who disappoints. Obviously heist movies are not a new thing, but there has never been a heist movie like Widows before.
Final rating: - I liked it. Would personally recommend you give it a go.
Looks amazing, but tries to cover too many issues, and the plot is laughable
Reggie Ugwu: What fascinates about seeing women in historically masculine roles? Do you see something qualitatively different about the way women and men conduct themselves?
Viola Davis: All we want from women is for them to be pretty, and for them to be kind. And it's those shallow qualities associated with womanhood that we see on screen. So we always feel less than. We always feel like the predator's prey. We always feel that boot of male influence and power. That's what #MeToo and Time_'s Up is all about. This movie is a realistic journey into women gaining ownership of their lives. And not at the expense of who they are. The femin...