Let me start out by telling you that the dog is fine. The dog makes it all the way through the
movie just fine – and I really wish someone had told me that prior to seeing
this movie. I spent a lot of unnecessary time worrying if the dog was going to
make it. She does.
Widows was originally a British TV series in 1983. Steve
McQueen has wanted to remake it into a movie for some time. He partnered with Gillian Flynn, the writer
of Gone Girl, to polish up the screenplay.
The story begins with Veronica, who is married to
Harry. Veronica and Harry lost a son,
but we don’t really know how long ago.
Harry is a criminal, but we don’t really know how much Veronica knows
about that. For some reason, Harry
steals a bunch of money from Alderman-in-the-running Jamal Manning. In the process, Harry and his three partners,
Florek, Carlos, and Jimmy, all end up dead – caught by the cops as they were
trying to escape with the money, which burns up in the subsequent
explosion. Well, burned up money does
Jamal and his brother, Jatemme, no good, so Jamal promptly threatens
Veronica. He tells her to get him $2
million in four weeks.
Veronica finds a key in Harry’s possessions that leads her
to a notebook, which then leads her to Harry’s hideout and his next plan. A plan to steal $5 million from Jamal’s opponent
in the Adelman race, Jack Mulligan, ironically a previous friend of Harry’s. Veronica gets together with the other widows
left behind by the explosion – correction, she gets together with Florek’s
widow (Alice), Carlos’s widow (Linda), and then Linda’s babysitter Belle. Jimmy’s widow, Amanda, has some other stuff
going on. The four women set about
taking on Harry’s next target in order to get the money to give to Jamal so he
can use it to defeat Jack and hopefully leave them alone.
It’s a little difficult to describe this movie, or tell you
which genre it best fits. It’s not an
action movie, despite what the trailers depicted. There’s really only one and a half action sequences
in the movie. It’s not quite a drama, because there are a lot of twists and
turns. I think ‘thriller’ comes closest,
but it’s a little slow-moving for that description. McQueen has done a wonderful job assembling
some quality pieces and a really interesting story with multiple intertwining
characters. It feels slow at some
points, but only to build the drama and the tension. It is a complicated, layered story that is
elevated by some excellent performances.
- It is absolutely Viola Davis’s movie and she owns the entire thing top to bottom. She’s incredible watchable, even when Veronica is at her weakest. Pulling herself up, learning more about her husband than she bargained for, and begrudgingly stepping into his shoes even if she is not completely prepared gives this role a huge range of emotions and qualities, and I don’t know if any other actress could have pulled it off as well. Because she is such a standout, the other three women didn’t get as much to do as I wanted.
- Elizabeth Debicki’s Alice gets some key scenes that define her relationship with Florek, and her complete unpreparedness for a life without a domineering husband. In a way, Alice is the most interesting character because she changes the most throughout the story.
- Michelle Rodriguez plays Linda Perelli, and she was running a quinceanera store which her husband seemed to take all the money from, so once he dies, she’s left with nothing. She does a good job of playing a woman who is focused on her kids, but also determined to ensure their comfort. It’s a little one-note, and I wanted a little more for her to do, having been a fan of hers for so long.
- Cynthia Erivo plays Belle, who starts out as Linda’s babysitter, but then becomes the group’s driver and runner. She’s build like a 100 meter sprint specialist and spends a good deal of time running in the movie. I particularly liked her introduction to Davis’s character and how they quickly went toe to toe.
- Carrie Coon plays Amanda, Jimmy’s widow who doesn’t get the first round of widow messages, and doesn’t join in on the escapades. She has some other stuff happening.
- Bryan Tyree Henry continues his run of showing up in everything by playing Jamal Manning. He is both crime boss and aspiring politician, and seems to be not great at either. He is suitably terrifying when he shows up to ‘request’ the money from Veronica.
- Daniel Kaluuya plays Jatemme Manning, Jamal’s enforcer and is absolutely and completely terrifying. He shoots a couple of dudes in the early part of the movie just to establish how violent he is, and then threatens some other folks all the way through.
- Collin Farrell plays Jack Mulligan, a different crime boss and politician who doesn’t seem to want to be alderman but is running because his father and grandfather were both in the position before him. His father seems to be demanding he run. Farrell seeps into the role, creepy and racist.
- Liam Neeson plays Harry Rawlings, who at first glance seems like a loving husband and father. Until he gets blown up and Veronica keeps discovering things he had hidden.
- Jon Bernthal plays Florek Gunner, a scumbag sidekick to Harry who beats his wife and gets shot.
- Manuel Garcia-Rulfo plays Carlos Perelli, a scumbag who steals from his wife and works with Harry.
- Coburn Goss plays Jimmy Nunn, Harry’s other scumbag partner.
- Garret Dillahunt briefly shows up as Bash, Harry and Veronica’s former chauffeur. He’s there to give her some clues, and help establish how horrible Jatemme is.
- Jacki Weaver plays Alice’s horrible mother. She’s there to help explain why Alice is so damaged.
- Robert Duvall plays Tom Mulligan, the former alderman who had a heart attack in the position, forcing him to step down – which he clearly did not want to do – so he is forcing his son to run.
- Lukas Haas shows up as a real estate developer named David who Alice encounters after the death of her husband. How did I get so old that 80s “it” kid Lukas Haas is now a grown man? Time to watch Solarbabies again.
- Kevin J. O’Connor plays a former associate of Harry’s, who is there to just continue to establish how crappy Harry was, and how horrible Jatemme is
- The dog, Olivia, is played by the same dog from Game Night earlier this year. That dog is getting a lot of work.
Overall, the movie is excellent, but quieter than I
expected, and slower than I expected. I
think I was counting on an action thriller – a sort of higher-level Set It Off
- and instead it’s a drama thriller. Still,
very good and well worth a viewing.
8 out of 10.
Bonus – in case you forgot about Set It Off.
No comments:
Post a Comment