"Widows” Review
"Widows" is exactly what you'd think it is. It's a solid heist film led by Viola Davis and a bunch of bad ass women. There's really not much I can say about it. The cast is solid with incredible performances including standouts like Elizabeth Debicki and Daniel Kaluuya. Steve McQueen's direction is slick and shows an artist at the height of his power. The dialogue, co-written by Gillian Flynn, has a lot of bite and snark. The camera work is gorgeous and always interesting (I especially love the use of long takes and complex camera movements to establish each scene). Sound design is sharp and clear and compliments the at times jarring cuts.
Things that kind of bothered me: There's a political side story that's connected to the heist but the end result lacks the emotional payoff of the actual heisting portion of the movie. Hans Zimmer's score, although effective, feels all too familiar to the point of becoming generic temp music based on other Zimmer scores (I had the exact same issue with 12 Years a Slave).
Widows is almost awesome. But with its lackluster political b-plot dragging it down, the movie has to settle with being just great instead.