There are a couple of unexpected turns I enjoyed in Steve McQueen’s crime/thriller, Widows. A story about four women in need of a way to survive after their husbands’ criminal activities leave them in huge debt.

Starring Viola Davis, Colin Farrell, Daniel Kaluuya, Liam Neeson, and Robert Duvall, Widows is, without a doubt, very well acted and devoid of any dull moments.

I’ll start by saying that I generally appreciate the quality in movies where everything isn’t overly explained. I like moments where the audience is trusted to connect the dots and make sense of things. Widows is a movie that has a handful of such moments. Yet, the ending aside, McQueen’s film feels oddly incomplete.

The feeling of incompleteness comes first from not knowing enough of the backstory of some of the characters. We learn a fair amount about some key players, but we’re left wanting when it comes to Cynthia Erivo’s very intriguing Belle, for example.

There are questions I had about one or two of the dead bodies and how they were disposed of. If you’ve watched Widows, you may be reading this and be thinking: ‘The brown notebook, silly!’ And you wouldn’t be wrong. Nevertheless, I still wanted to be fully convinced by how the story played out, especially when it came to the widows’ turn to criminality. Unfortunately, even though I came close to being convinced, I just wasn’t – not completely.

I’ve seen far too many television crime dramas/thrillers, which show just the right amount, for me to buy a story wholeheartedly, which is why I can say that Widows may have been better suited to a miniseries format. That way, it wouldn’t feel quite so heavily edited and in draft form. There’d be more time for me to get to know a greater number of the characters more satisfyingly.

My favourite performance in Widows is delivered by Farrell. I enjoyed watching his super-entitled politician’s son character and listening to what sounded like a very convincing accent. Elizabeth Debicki also delivered some fun turns I wanted more of. 

Overall, Widows may not be my favourite McQueen movie, but it isn’t all bad either. Watch it if you’re curious. You may find it more complete than I do.

Happy Film Loving,

G