Widows

Tropic Sprockets by Ian Brockway

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The always provocative director Steve McQueen (“12 Years a Slave”) aims to unbalance us right from the get-go with a kissing scene between gangster Harry Rawlings (Liam Neeson) and his wife Veronica (Viola Davis) that feels like a prelude to a murder—biting and aggressive. This is what makes McQueen so masterful and compelling, he hooks and engages so completely that we cannot look away and that is true in this film “Widows” (based on the British TV series) despite its multiple subplots.

Harry is an expert thief who dies during a botched burglary, except that his wife is convinced that her husband never makes mistakes. Veronica is overcome with grief but she comes to an acceptance and life grinds on.

One day, politician Jamal Manning (Brian Tyree Henry) confronts Veronica. Harry stole Manning’s money and he wants it back. Veronica has one month to pay up. Veronica is stupefied. She finds Harry’s old notebook of plans and resolves to pull one more heist. It is the only way to achieve peace especially since alderman candidate Mulligan (Colin Farrell) is just as dishonest as anyone.

The film is chock full of riveting details and apprehension. The story succeeds just as much as a slice of life analysis as it does a suspenseful crime story. Each widow has a story and McQueen has the patience to let us sink in and discover each woman on our own, without bias or preconceptions. There is also Linda (Michelle Rodriguez) and Alice (Elizabeth Debicki) and both roles are varied and colorful with unique pushes and pulls. Most of the women are under the threat of male violence, manipulation or outdated ideas.

Several of the men sit arrogantly behind desks, gripping the metal of a gun or the leather of a steering wheel, grabbing objects or the collar of a dog menacingly in their meaty hands. It is no accident that the widows’ voices are an electronic growl during the climax of the film; they have taken possession of male energy and made it their own. Women follow through, prevail and conquer.

Harry Rawlings, master criminal, is himself a statuesque automaton. He often stands rigid and immobile in the shower, his face a wedge of granite. His biting kisses are hallmarks of a past age when men were the prime movers and in total control.

The entrancing actor Daniel Kaluuya (“Get Out”) is extremely menacing, but he is nothing compared to the force of Agnieszka (Jacki Weaver) as Alice’s violent mother. “Widows” may well be the first genuine gangster film where the women are not only equal to the men but are clearly more powerful. The strength is not only awesome but graceful. Veronica also shows compassion and restraint.

With a screenplay co-written by Gillian Flynn (Gone Girl), “Widows” is a thrill through and through with never a dull or static moment in over two hours. Part crime drama, part existential thriller and a meditation on the entitlement and impotence of men, it is a surprise at every turn and one of the most satisfying films this year.

Write Ian at ianfree11@yahoo.com