Widows

This is a thick pulp-crime genre piece packed with interest. Three women left behind after their criminal husbands die in a robbery gone wrong, all desperate to get a piece of a five million dollar plan their husbands left behind, find themselves up against rival gangsters and Chicago politics at its most venal. Led by a powerhouse Viola Davis, determined and tough, there’s a great ensemble cast here all playing in top gear (Michelle Roduiguez hasn’t been served material this meaty since her debut in “Girlfight”, and Elizabeth Debecki finally gets her breakthrough from “interesting bit of the supporting cast” to something far more central, this is probably the best Colin Farrell’s been with an American accent, Brian Tyrese Henry brings an intimidating authority and Daniel Kaluyaa a terrifying stillness). Steve McQueen and Gillian Flynn have rewritten Lyda LaPlant’s pulp 80s miniseries into an exploration of class, gender, race and power as they come up against each other in a crime movie that serves both the pulpy pleasures, a whole lot of emotional thoughtfulness and a playing out of wider social forces against a group of very distinctive individuals. I’d hoped this would be interesting. I got something that delighted me all the way through to the final shot. Absolutely recommended.