Not to be confused with the famous leading man of the 60s, Steve McQueen has been gaining a great reputation. He first became interested in film while attending Goldsmiths College at the University of London while studying art and design. His first film was a short in 1993 called Bear, which was shown at the Royal Art College in London. From then to 2007, McQueen mostly did short films until 2008, when he made his first feature film, Hunger. While not a huge hit commercially, it was very well-received by critics, and McQueen won the Caméra d’Or at Cannes. McQueen followed that with 2011’s Shame, which got a limited release for its NC-17 rating, and was also well-received. Then, in 2013, he made 12 Years a Slave, which was both a major critical and financial hit. Now, after a 5-year hiatus, McQueen returns with the heist-thriller, Widows.
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A group of thieves, led by Harry Rawlings (Liam Neeson), gets gunned down after a robbery gone wrong. Turns out Harry and his crew stole $2 million from crime boss Jamal Manning (Brian Tyree Henry) and he’s upset. He starts threatening Rawling’s widow Veronica (Viola Davis) to deliver the money within two weeks or things will get worse. She soon finds Harry’s notebook, which details each of his heists, including plans for what would’ve been his next heist. With this in hand, she recruits the widows of the other heist members, Linda (Michelle Rodriguez) and Alice (Elizabeth Debicki). At the same time, Jamal is running for aldermen against Jack Mulligan (Colin Farrell), whose family have historically always won. As the widows continue planning their heist, several twists and turns occur that shake up their plans. Will they pull off the heist or will they get more than they bargained for?
On the surface, many would say this is very similar to Ocean’s 8 released earlier in 2018. But while that was a female counterpart to the Ocean’s 11 films, this feels like the female cast is incidental. This honestly feels like it would’ve more or less been the same no matter who was cast, male or female. For me, this is the right way to cast this film, focusing less on gender and more on talent. Speaking of, every single cast member brings their A-game here, all giving Oscar-worthy performances that will stick with you. Viola Davis is phenomenal in the lead role, and Michelle Rodriguez and Elizabeth Debicki work great alongside her. Brian Tyree Henry is effectively threatening and intimidating, and Daniel Kaluuya is just as menacing even if slightly over-the-top. Performance-wise, there really are no false notes and any one of them deserves tons of critical acclaim.
Given McQueen’s work on his last film 12 Years A Slave, he’s effectively shown he can do really gritty material. Here, not only is the grit on display, but he shows that he can also effectively do intense action. There’s a car chase/shootout with the police early on that’s on par with a similar scene from Robocop. Granted, this isn’t necessarily a nonstop action thrill ride, but the few action scenes here are done amazingly well. Of course, it helps that we care about the characters and want to see them make it out alive. At its heart, this is a film about women who’ve lost their loved ones trying to take their lives back. Sure, it may seem like a product of the #MeToo movement, but that shouldn’t detract from this movie’s high quality. Overall, Widows is an effective thriller and character drama, and one of 2018’s best.
