Mini Film Review – Widows

Yesterday I watched Widows, and it was alright! Directed by Steve McQueen, and starring Viola Davis, Michelle Rodriguez, Elizabeth Debicki, and Cynthia Erivo; Widows is a heist thriller based on the 1983 TV Series of the same name. The film follows a group of women from Chicago who plan to steal a large sum of money to pay off a major crime boss, whose money was stolen by the deceased husbands of three of the women. Widows is a rather complicated film to understand, as the plot just sort of plods along from one scene to the next, with not much attention grabbing filler. The film’s sub plot is there, it’s just not all that well explained, and is filled with hard to hear mumblings from the stellar cast attempting to prop it all up. Some characters are not at all captivating, and others seem to be there just for being there. The film’s plus points are pretty rare, but are at least present. Rodriguez, Debicki, and Erivo for instance really help to keep the film going as characters you want to see achieve the end goal. Brian Tyree Henry meanwhile is an interesting take on a crime boss, but while his presence is felt early on, as the film plods towards its conclusion, his time in the film just concludes and you don’t see him again. Widows has it’s moments, from it’s cool cast of Rodriguez, Debicki, Erivo, and Tyree Henry, to the main heist itself, and all the planning scenes. But the rest of the film is just rather dull and built up by uninteresting filler, which just leaves a disappointing sour note, as you hoped there would be more!