Widows (2018) Review
"You need to watch how you talk to me."
-Belle
After Harry Rawlings (Liam Neeson) and his crew are killed in a heist gone wrong, the man whose money was stolen, Jamal Manning (Brian Tyree Henry), gives Harry's widow, Veronica (Viola Davis), one month to pay back the $2 million. With limited options, Veronica teams up with the other widows from Harry's heist to pull off one single job to pay back Jamal and set themselves up financially for life.
What Works:
Widows feels like two different movies forced together, which is not a good thing and I'll get to that later, but I do like both of the movies. The primary storyline is about Veronica and the other widows prepping for and executing the heist. I enjoyed most of the prep scenes, even though there wasn't as much of it as I expected and I also really enjoyed the heist sequence. It was much quicker than I was expecting, but intense and exciting.
The second story follows Jack Mulligan (Colin Farrell) as he tries to win a local election against Jamal. I was actually really interested in this storyline. Jack is a character you would typically root against. His father, Tom (Robert Duvall), is the person holding the position Jack is running for and is retiring. You'd think we would root for Jamal to break up the Mulligan family's stranglehold on the position, but that's not the case, Jack, though flawed, is far more likable than Jamal. It's interesting that we are rooting for the character that has the advantage of who his father is and it's also very satisfying to watch Jack put his father in his place.
Elizabeth Debicki and Cynthia Erivo both play members of Veronica's team and they both do a very good job. Elizabeth's character has a great arc from being abused by both her late husband and her mother, to standing up to anyone who gets in her way. Cynthia is also great and has a few really awesome moments where she puts Veronica in her place.
Finally, though he doesn't get a ton to do, Daniel Kaluuya is great as Jamal's brother and enforcer. The guy is scary and incredibly violent and does a great job with what he is given.
What Sucks:
As I said before, Widows feels like two different movies crammed together, and while I like both movies, they don't fit together very well until the 3rd act. This makes the the rest of the movie feel very long as the jumps back and forth between the two stories are jarring. It kills the flow of the film and makes it drag at points. I wish this had been two separate movies. I think I would have liked them both more than what this movie ultimately is.
I'm not really sure why Michelle Rodriguez is in this. She's part of the heist team, but she really doesn't get much to do. She is only given one job during the setup and fails at it. Elizabeth has to step in and do it for her and she isn't all that important in the heist itself. You could have cut her from the movie and nothing really changes. Also, Daniel Kaluuya is very underused. With a performance that solid, he really needed more screen-time.
Finally, the 3rd act the final confrontation after the heist is somewhat anticlimactic. It's supposed to be this big emotional moment, but it just sort of ends very quickly. I was very taken aback by how fact it was brushed over especially when this movie doesn't brush over anything else.
Verdict
Widows is a movie that had a lot of potential, but doesn't utilize all of it. The two storylines are good, but don't mesh well together. The performances are good, but some of the characters are underused. And the final confrontation is engaging, but is over too quickly. Widows should have been two separate movies instead of one long one, but it's worth seeing and has still got it going on.
7/10: Good
Elizabeth Debicki and Cynthia Erivo both play members of Veronica's team and they both do a very good job. Elizabeth's character has a great arc from being abused by both her late husband and her mother, to standing up to anyone who gets in her way. Cynthia is also great and has a few really awesome moments where she puts Veronica in her place.
Finally, though he doesn't get a ton to do, Daniel Kaluuya is great as Jamal's brother and enforcer. The guy is scary and incredibly violent and does a great job with what he is given.
What Sucks:
As I said before, Widows feels like two different movies crammed together, and while I like both movies, they don't fit together very well until the 3rd act. This makes the the rest of the movie feel very long as the jumps back and forth between the two stories are jarring. It kills the flow of the film and makes it drag at points. I wish this had been two separate movies. I think I would have liked them both more than what this movie ultimately is.
I'm not really sure why Michelle Rodriguez is in this. She's part of the heist team, but she really doesn't get much to do. She is only given one job during the setup and fails at it. Elizabeth has to step in and do it for her and she isn't all that important in the heist itself. You could have cut her from the movie and nothing really changes. Also, Daniel Kaluuya is very underused. With a performance that solid, he really needed more screen-time.
Finally, the 3rd act the final confrontation after the heist is somewhat anticlimactic. It's supposed to be this big emotional moment, but it just sort of ends very quickly. I was very taken aback by how fact it was brushed over especially when this movie doesn't brush over anything else.
Verdict
Widows is a movie that had a lot of potential, but doesn't utilize all of it. The two storylines are good, but don't mesh well together. The performances are good, but some of the characters are underused. And the final confrontation is engaging, but is over too quickly. Widows should have been two separate movies instead of one long one, but it's worth seeing and has still got it going on.
7/10: Good
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