Peter Viney's Blog

Widows
2018
Directed by Steve McQueen

Screenplay by Gillian Flynn & Steve McQueen
Based on “Widows” by Lynda La Plante (1983 mini-series)
Music by Hans Zimmer

CAST:
Viola Davis – Veronica Rawlins
Michelle Rodriguez – Linda Perelli
Elizabeth Debicki – Alice Gunner
Cynthia Erivo – Belle

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Colin Farrell – Jack Mulligan, a politician
Bryan Tyree Henry – Jamal Manning, a crime boss owed money by the widows and would-be politician
Daniel Kaluuya – Jatemme, Jamal’s brother / enforcer
Jacki Weaver- Agnieska, Alice’s mother
Liam Neeson – Harry Rawlins, Veronica’s husband
Manuel Garcia-Rulfo – Carlos Perelli, Linda’s husband
Jon Berthal – Florek Gunner, Alice’s husband
Carrie Coon – Amanda
Robert Duvall – Tom Mulligan, Jack’s father
Garret Dillahunt – Bash O’Reilly, the Rawlins driver
Kevin J O’Connor – Bobby Welsh, tenpin bowling owner
Jon Michael Hill- Reverend Wheeler
Michael Harney – Sgt Fuller, corrupt cop

Veronica (Viola Davis) with politician Tom Mulligan (Colin Farrell). Garrett Dillahunt as Bash, her driver, behind

The winter comes, and with it the decent films get released ready to line up for Golden Globes, Oscars and the rest. Also evenings get dark, the rain falls and long night drives back from theatres are less appealing, and this blog finds itself increasingly at the local multiplex cinema.

So to Widows. The original TV Lyda La Plante mini-series was set in London. Three armed robbers die when the security van they’re robbing catches fire. The three widows, short of cash, decide to implement their dead husbands’ planned next robbery. Steve McQueen recalled it (and / or the American TV version) and decided to update it, and have it based in Chicago. It’s set mainly in the grim and grimy bits of Chicago you don’t want to see, but there are some excellent shots of the El (and it’s hard to make that fresh on film, but he does), the downtown glazed buildings and the whole skyline from out on the lake.

My problem is avoiding plot spoilers. The greatness of the film (and it is a great film) is in the intricacy of the narrative, and the surprises that throws up. McQueen has intercut various viewpoints rapidly, yet we never lose the plot. Making that work is direction, plotting and screenplay of the highest order. He does have that (yawn) screen-filling fireball right at the start … it was in every trailer we saw today too, as in Disney-MGM rides. But he only reprises it once, and the film is mercifully “big flame effect” free otherwise.

Michelle Rodriguez as Linda Perelli, Viola Davis as Veronica Rawlins, Elizabeth Debicki as Alice Gunner

McQueen has started out with three amazing faces of widely differing ethnicity. Viola Davis is the lead Veronica, wife of the guy who masterminded the criminal plots. Her face has proved over the years the perfect expression of African-American stoicism mixed with deep suspicion.  Se’s the wealthy one in her $2 million apartment, based on her husband’s years as a successful thief. Then you take Michelle Rodriguez, as Linda and  as the Hispanic one … you can see centuries of Mexican / Aztec / Mayan suffering just in her lips. The third is Elizabeth Debicki, playing the very blonde Polish-American one, Alice, extremely thin and tall with a third incredible and expressive face … as seen in the series The Night Manager.

Lacking a driver, they add Linda’s babysitter, Belle, a fourth iconic face from Cynthia Erivo. And is she tough? Running, boxing, leaping over fences.

Cynthia Erivo as Belle, Michelle Rodriguez as Linda

Veronica is the central figure, and having lost her husband, Harry Rawlins, (Liam Neeson), she has Jamal turn up to demand $2 million that Harry owed him. Her only answer is to find the book where Harry recorded past and future heists and recruit the other widows, Linda and Alice, to help her. She tells them they’re also in Jamal’s firing line, though he never said that, so it implies she was exploiting them (as her husband led and exploited their spouses). Linda has lost her shop because of her husband’s gambling debts. Alice has nothing (except a vicious old hag of a mother) and has to resort to becoming a paid “escort” to a sleazy architect. Belle works in a hairdressing salon, where the owner is still paying off the Mulligans for the political chicanery that got her the loan to open it. They’re all “abused” in oneway or another.

Linda (Michelle Rodriguez) and Alice (Elizabeth Debicki)

It’s played out against a political battle in the 18th Ward of Chicago. Colin Farrell’s Jack Mulligan (Jack? JFK? There’s a reference) is the inheritor, the son of Tom Mulligan (Robert Duvall) who has held the ward  for years of deep corruption. They should have called him Joseph. The local major gangster, Jamal, is standing against him, wanting a piece of the corruption and bribery. Both try to enlist the popular local firebrand preacher, Reverend Wheeler (Jon Michael Hill) who is definitely for sale.

Daniel Kaluuya  as Jateeme, the murderous enforcer, Bryan Tyree Henry as Jamal

The violence / action is well spread out and all the more effective for it. Probably the nastiest bit, McQueen bringing out his inner Tarantino,  is when Jatemme (Daniel Kaluuya) who is gangster / politician Jamal’s brother and enforcer decides to torture the disabled bowling alley guy (Kevin J. O’Connor), who was crippled by gangsters in the first place. It was excruciating hands over the eyes stuff, bizarrely played out to Van Morrison singing Madame George from Astral Weeks:

Kevin J. O’Connor as Bobby, the tenpin bowling guy, and Daniel Kaluuya as Jateeme, the ultimate bad guy.

It demands watching twice for the references. Veronica reckons no one will ever suspect the women of the $5 million planned robbery. During the actual robbery (I’m falling over to avoid plot spoilers) they use children’s voice changer toys, which we see earlier in the babysitting sequence. Veronica’s fluffy white dog, threatened by Jamal at her apartment, later sniffing at his master’s old leather jacket … then a closed door, is of major significance.

Camera work is outstanding. Try the scene where Veronica and Alice see each other in a restaurant … look at their reflections in the pillar mirrors.

The base soundtrack is Hans Zimmer, but it includes “found” music: Madame George by Van Morrison, Whiter Shade of Pale by Procul Harum. Sade’s The Big Unknown is the end credit track. The one that stands out, is (I think) Wild Is The Wind by Nina Simone, which Veronica listens to in her apartment before Jamal arrives to threaten her. That seems to be the song, but the film shows an Atlantic LP on the turntable, and it was Philips. I feel embarrassed to know that, and even more to write it. Corrections welcome.

I’ll rate it *****

It’s off and running somewhat early for the Awards season, making it harder to predict. I often do and am usually wrong. I’d reckon it should stand a chance of nomination for film, director and screenplay. Viola Davis will surely be nominated for best actress? I’d reckon Elizabeth Debicki for supporting role too. Daniel Kaluuya radiates menace and evil to an extraordinary degree.

The critics?

Having won a supporting actress Oscar for Fences, Davis’s astonishing performance deserves to attract best actress attention at the forthcoming Academy Awards. Yet in a collaborative endeavour almost overburdened by outstanding work, it seems strange to single out any single element for recognition. For me, that is the film’s greatest strength. Mark Kermode, The Guardian, *****