Widows

Widows 2018

Directed by Steve McQueen, who brought us Hunger, Shame and more famously (Academy Award winning) 12 Years a Slave. He also co-wrote the screenplay with Gillian Flynn, the author of Gone Girl.
This film is based on a 1983 four part mini series of the same name that was written by Lynda La Plante.

After a bungled robbery leaves Veronica (Viola Davies) not only without husband Harry (Liam Neeson) but with a debt of $2m. She finds a set of plans for a job that her husband was working on and goes about recruiting the other widows from the failed heist to join her in pulling the job and getting out from under the debt their husbands have left them in.

Boasting a cast of this calibre, Viola Davies, Elizabeth Debecki, Colin Farrell, Daniel Kaluuya, Jackie Weaver and Robert Duvall and writing from Gillian Flynn, this film can be nothing but great right?……. Wrong! so very, very wrong.

Looking at other reviews this is an opinion that not many others share but I don’t care. I’ve been saying Roadhouse is movie gold for almost 30 years (and I’ll fight anyone that says different!) so saying this movie is poor is like film arguing 101.

Describing the pacing of this film as pedestrian is an insult to people who walk to get where they’re going, it was so slow that the 131 minute run time felt like around an hour more. If that was the only problem I had then I could probably have dealt with it, but alas that was just one of the many issues I had. This was a “heist by numbers” film, there were zero surprises as it bungled from one cliche to the next. I have honestly not rolled my eyes throughout a film more then I did in this one.

Every scene in a film should be there for a reason whether it be plot driven or character driven it needs to move the film along. There were so many wasted scenes that it felt like maybe I’d been shown all the deleted scenes rather then the actual film.

The script and the acting was also for me a massive letdown Davies has Oscar buzz around this performance but not for me, she was better in Suicide Squad then in this film. Robert Duvall may as well phoned in his performance and there was one scene of his I was almost embarrassed watching. Liam Neeson is the same character he has played in everything post Taken.

The notable stand-out is Daniel Kaluuya, who adds “delightfully evil shit” to his growing repertoire of characters. All stares and posturing, he’s magnetic as a politicians thug and I want to see a film about that character please.

I have seen some truly dreadful movies this year so is this the worst I’ve seen? Not by a long shot but this does have the dubious honour of being the biggest letdown of the year.

A final thought. What was Steve McQueen trying to say with the representation of Veronica’s life? Everything seemed to be whitewashed. Spotlessly clean white house, spotlessly clean white dog that she was never not carrying, all whilst she was wearing stark black outfits? It was too blatant to be for no reason, but I can’t think of an answer (race? morals? cinematography?), so if anyone has any insight then please leave a comment below.