[Review] Widows: An Atypical Heist Film

Widows, directed by Oscar-winning Steve McQueen of 12 Years a Slave, with a screenplay by Gillian Flynn of Gone Girl, and starring Emmy winner and Oscar Best Supporting Actress Viola Davis, is a combination that inherently sparks high expectations. Did it live up to them?

Widows is director Steve McQueen's fourth feature film. His three previous works were critically acclaimed dramas, including the 2014 Oscar Best Picture 12 Years a Slave. With Widows, he delves into a genre and tone seemingly quite different from his previous work, yet he still delivers his distinct style, creating a thriller that stands apart. As a heist-centric thriller, many viewers would likely anticipate an opening filled with explosive, thrilling scenes. They would only be half right: the film's opening isn't a heist sequence, but an intimate scene between Veronica (Viola Davis) and her husband Harry (Liam Neeson) in bed. The film then uses parallel editing, interweaving scenes of Harry and his crew's heist, shootout, and escape with glimpses of their daily lives with their wives. These segments establish the backgrounds of Veronica and the other two female protagonists, Linda (Michelle Rodriguez) and Alice (Elizabeth Debicki), including their social class, family situations, and personalities. This opening culminates with Harry and his crew's van exploding, marking Veronica, Linda, and Alice as the "widows" of the film's title, and the story officially begins.

Such an opening clearly signals that while the film embraces thrilling elements, it equally prioritizes plot and character development. As a thriller, it naturally incorporates common elements of the genre: explosions, gunfights, gangs, darkness, corrupt politics, and a heist. However, the film also uses its narrative and characters to explore various societal issues. Steve McQueen masterfully controls the film's pace, rendering the dramatic sections slowly while accelerating the thrilling parts. Moreover, when addressing societal issues, the film employs a "slow and meticulous" approach, often portraying them subtly. One of the most striking scenes for me was when politician Jack Mulligan (Colin Farrell) concludes his speech and is driven home in a private car. In this single, uncut long take, Jack converses with his wife in the car, but the scene deliberately avoids showing the interior conversation. Instead, it captures the entire journey from outside the vehicle. This unique angle might seem puzzling, but its focus isn't the content of their dialogue. Rather, it's the changing scenery outside the car: in just one to two minutes, the car transitions from a predominantly gray and brown slum to a tree-lined, grassy suburb filled with grand houses. This scene highlights a key theme of the film: the severe wealth disparity in Chicago, and indeed America, and the stark contrast between social classes, showing how a minority of wealthy individuals and politicians control the fortunes of the majority.

In addition to the aforementioned scene, the film explores different issues through the backgrounds and storylines of its protagonists, again presented with a slow pace and subtle nuance. The film frequently incorporates flashbacks of Veronica, both demonstrating her yearning for her husband and revealing their past together, including their deceased son. The film initially introduces this son through fragmented clips and dialogue, with Veronica stating that everything happened because Harry married a Black woman, linking the son to racial issues. Later, we finally see the complete scene of their son's death: he is stopped and shot by police in his car. This heartbreaking scene is unfortunately a recurring reality in America, and local audiences would likely feel an even stronger emotional impact. When narrating Alice's story, the film uses the way her clients treat her to emphasize how men view her as a commodity, disregarding her personality and feelings. Furthermore, the main plot of the film, the heist carried out by several women, inherently aims to overturn male prejudices against women. Screenwriter Gillian Flynn, much like in Gone Girl, introduces an unexpected twist that also carries a theme of female autonomy, asserting that women do not need to fully conform to male demands and expectations; they can make their own choices. The film concludes subtly with a smile and a greeting from Veronica to Alice, where Veronica seems to realize that they don't need to maintain a relationship of mere heist partners like their husbands, but rather friends; women supporting each other can better survive in this cruel world.

Viola Davis, who has won an Emmy for Best Actress and an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in the past four years, delivers a predictably masterful performance as the protagonist Veronica, brilliantly embodying the character's vulnerability, strength, and grief at different moments. However, the film's most pleasant surprise is the striking performance by Elizabeth Debicki. She transforms from a seemingly weak wife without her own personality into a determined, self-respecting character, completely holding her own against the rest of the cast. The film's supporting cast is inherently strong, including Colin Farrell, Brian Tyree Henry, Daniel Kaluuya, Jacki Weaver, Carrie Coon, Robert Duvall, and Liam Neeson. Each delivers a compelling performance, shining brightly even with limited screen time. Among them, Daniel Kaluuya, who has been consistently brilliant in recent years and was nominated for an Oscar for Get Out this year, once again delivers an outstanding performance. His character's ruthlessness in the two scenes on the basketball court and bowling alley is chilling; his gaze alone is enough to inspire fear.

This time, Steve McQueen has crafted a unique, thought-provoking thriller that prioritizes plot and character development. I wonder if audiences will appreciate such a novel attempt?