With a body of work centering on physical, psychological and self-inflicted suffering, filmmaker Steve McQueen’s sensibilities firmly align with the conventions and themes of arthouse, rather than commercial, cinema. That’s what makes his latest film, the moody heist thriller “Widows,” so appealing and confounding. McQueen imbues the inescapable, ultra-sleek heist genre with his signature edifying and forceful voice. The result is a rare type of commercial film, one that elevates its familiar material into an attuned exploration of survival and empathy.
“Widows” stars Viola Davis as Veronica Rawlings, a Chicago teachers’ union executive married to a notorious criminal, Harry (Liam Neeson). After Harry and his accomplices perish in a failed robbery, widows Veronica, Alice (Elizabeth Debicki) and Linda (Michelle Rodriguez) find themselves in emotional and economic turmoil. Veronica recruits Alice and Linda to pull off a $5 million heist to pay off Harry’s debt to crime-boss-turned-politician Jamal Manning (Brian Tyree Henry), split the rest among themselves and secure their futures.
McQueen and co-screenwriter Gillian Flynn broaden the film’s scope to include sprawling commentary on the massive cultural upheaval in Chicago. McQueen defiantly throws audiences into the busy, twisted plot with a sensational opening sequence. Veronica and Harry share a tender moment in bed, which becomes cross-cutted with the turbulent heist-gone-wrong. Shot from the point of view of a getaway van with its back doors flying open, Harry and his crew attempt to flee the chaotic stream of bullets fired by the police.
The confrontational sequence ends with crescendoed violence and an assured introduction to McQueen’s unique vision for the film. Yes, he delivers a ruthless and whiplash-inducing thriller, à la Harry and his crew’s brutalized attempted getaway. More importantly, he depicts the complex dynamics between experienced criminals and their home lives, as seen in Veronica and Harry’s sincere love and care for each other.
McQueen infuses “Widows” with a surprising amount of empathy for his characters. Veronica, Alice, Linda and their appointed driver Belle (Cynthia Erivo) come from various racial and socioeconomic backgrounds and manifest their pain in different ways. After Harry dies, the quietly mourning Veronica doesn’t have anybody in her life — except her adorable, obedient dog — and frequently reminiscences on their marriage. Abused and delicate, Alice reluctantly joins a website matching wealthy men to young, attractive women. Linda, meanwhile, struggles to take care of her children amid the repossession of her dress shop, while Belle works multiple jobs to support her daughter.
Because of the desperate heroines’ despairing livelihoods, the stakes of the film’s central heist become insurmountably high. Veronica, Alice, Linda and Belle chase sheer survival, rather than personal comeuppance, opulence or fun — the usual motivations in heist films. McQueen presents their rapid descent into crime as necessary and noble, and it’s simply a joy to watch these smart and strong, albeit inexperienced, women develop their plan. Whether the gang practices their shooting skills or buys a getaway car at an auction, each seemingly mundane task leading up to the robbery coalesces into well-executed, satisfying narrative payoff.
The film’s weakness lies in McQueen’s didactic scrutiny of the corruptive and fundamentally inequitable Chicago, a city which constrains our heroines from living secure and protected lives. Between its examination of gender roles, unconcealed racism, class and corrupt political campaigns, “Widows” tackles a myriad of social inequalities, resulting in both an astute moral urgency and superfluous ambition. A cheap inclusion of police brutality functions as a mere plot device to add to the dense array of another character’s grievances. As an especially pressing issue affecting far too many black lives, police shootings warrant an intense and thoughtful foregrounding, as opposed to a shoehorn subplot in an already overstuffed movie.
While “Widows” occasionally suffers from some of its societal observations, the film still remains a stunning treatise on opportunity, inequality and survival. McQueen makes an efficient use of one the best ensemble casts in recent years. All the women — especially Davis, who poignantly juggles vulnerability with a formidable resilience — give challenging and engaging performances, as does Daniel Kaluuya, who plays the most icy and sinister onscreen killer of 2018.
“Widows” packages its heavier themes into a tightly constructed, crowd-pleasing romp with shocking twists and a breathless pace. The film marks a step forward for McQueen, who has proven his ability to deliver intelligent and compelling films for general audiences. Considering the standardization of entertaining but insipid box office juggernauts, movies like “Widows” should be more available to mainstream audiences.
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