Widows

Some films are fierce hard to talk about without giving away spoilers. Sometimes it's inevitable a plot point or two will have to be shared otherwise you just couldn't talk about a film at all. Steve McQueen's new film Widows is a case in point. Even it's title is a spoiler. So word of warning. I have to spoil the first 3 minutes of this film to talk about the rest. But I won't be giving anymore away than the trailers have.

Veronica, Alice, Linda and Amanda all become widows when their husbands' money heist goes explosively wrong. Their grieving has to be put aside however when the man who's money was stolen comes looking for it back and he's not a man to be trifled with. Their story plays out against a background of political corruption and greed in America's second city. 

This was an absolute cracker. An exciting, surprising, unpredictable, brilliantly made and beautifully shot crime drama that starts off at a breakneck pace before pulling back to look at a city in turmoil. Steve McQueen's take on a heist film contains all the requisite story beats you'd expect but he goes far deeper than the usual shallow thrills and as the film zips along it becomes a treatise on women's place in modern society, the routes open to people of colour in modern day America, the gulf between the rich and poor of America that seems to be widening more and more as each day passes and the fact that men ruin everything. Everything.

Widows could easily be a well written B-movie but in McQueen's hands it turns into something special. He has a hell of an eye and his use of off kilter shots elevate the film into a higher plain. One scene shot in one take from a car bonnet and played out to a political rant becomes an almost state of the union address as we see the stark difference between the haves and the have not's who live mere moments from each other but at the same time are worlds apart. It's a special moment that only makes sense seconds before it finishes and in a way it turns the city of Chicago into a character of it's own. His use of violence is something else too. Other films of this ilk would revel in violent action and use it to excite an audience but here it's brutal, startling and very unglamorous. It's an ugly world our widows have stepped into.

Men might be in power in this story but it's the women who own the film. Each broken and grieving  in their own way until they decide to take the power back. Viola Davis, Michelle Rodriguez, Elizabeth Debicki and Cynthia Erivo are uniformly excellent as the great unwashed, avatars for a populace with the man's boot on their neck. Davis and Debicki stand out though. Two women broken by violence in their past who realise they do indeed have the balls to do what needs to be done. Davis a portrait of fragility and volatility while Debicki brings a load of humanity to proceedings as a woman who'll do anything to avoid an inevitable future. They're just electric here. Colin Farrell, Robert Duvall, Brian Tyree Henry and Daniel Kaluuya represent the venal, corrupt, broken side of society. Kaluuya is the one you'll remember. A happy sadistic who'll smile in your face while he stabs you in the back. It's a joy to see Duvall in fiery form too as a man representative of the generation who left America in it's current mess. 87 years young and still capable of delivering a profane tirade with the best of them.

As good and well made as the film is it's not perfect. Some plot strands are annoyingly left hanging and give the impression that scissors were used a bit too judiciously in the editing room in an effort to cut down the already 2hr+ running time. Then a couple of plot turns and coincidences will make you roll your eyes when they jar with the gritty and realistic tone that the film has created but you what, fuck it, they barely tarnish what is a highly entertaining and intelligent piece of work. Hunger, Shame, 12 Years A Slave and now this. Steve McQueen is on a hell of a roll and his first leap into genre film making has succeeded. I can't wait to see what his fifth film will be.