Steve McQueen is one of those directors in the last decade who takes his time deciding on a project that he yearns for in terms of creativity and passion in his storytelling. Shame is a masterpiece that I will rarely see that should have garnered Michael Fassbender a nomination for Best Actor, but the content turned people off. Hunger was a remarkable solid story about the 1981 Irish Hunger strike. And, 12 Years a Slave, which was my selection of The Best Movie of 2013 and the Best Picture Oscar winner of that year, took Solomon Northup's autobiography to life with a disturbing atmosphere surrounding his journey. Now, he has chosen this story about a group of four widows taking on a heist. Because of what is going in this society today, it makes sense and also McQueen wanted to go for that blockbuster feel. The movie had the potential to become another great film by Steve McQueen and even though there are pockets of great intensity and action and a couple of strong performances, but it lacked in execution and it becomes a bit of a disjointed heist story that needed to become tightened in the editing room.
After husband Harry Rawlings (Liam Neeson) is killed with a bunch of his partners in a botched heist, Harry's widow, Veronica (Viola Davis), is threatened by crime boss and politician Jamal Manning (Brian Tyree Henry), from whom Harry and his group robbed $2 million. Manning is trying to finance his electoral campaign of a South Side alderman running against Jack Mulligan (Colin Farrell), a politician who is the son of power broker, Tom Mulligan (Robert Duvall).
Veronica discovers Harry's notebook of a plan surrounding a heist to get $5 million. So, she recruits two widows of the thieves, Linda and Alice (Michelle Rodriguez and Elizabeth Debicki), to assist her. Their fourth person in the group, Amanda (Carrie Coon), does not show up since she has a newborn so Veronica recruits her children's babysitter, Belle (Cynthia Erivo), to be their driver.
I'm going to start by saying this: I liked the movie but I think after watching the movie and seeing how much of the high praise it has gotten, I question it. I think it may potentially become the most overrated film of 2018 because the execution of the movie and its story is weak. I loved the opening in which you see the heist being botched but when Viola Davis' character is threatened and she makes the decision to take on a heist to repay the villains and help themselves, the movie does not become as believable and becomes more imaginative than logical. I bought the widow characters in a psychological sense but not in a realistic sense in which they just do the heist without any experience.
The reason I mostly liked the movie were the performances that are across the board. If I were only to give sole nominations of this movie, I would give it to Elizabeth Debicki in a supporting role as she had the most backstory and the more interest. She is cunning, sexy and also complex. Viola Davis is a long shot for a Best Actress nomination but I would not be surprised as she does give another powerful performance in her pedigree of strong performances. I found Michelle Rodriguez a bit lackluster and did not have as chemistry with the cast. She looked like she wanted to get back with her posse in the Fast and the Furious franchise. And, Cynthia Erivo's character felt like a last resort to do something. Liam Neeson is fine in his role as is Colin Farrell who is continuing on with great performances. I found Daniel Kaluuya to become one-note in his cartoonish character and I was extremely disappointed in his effort.
I admire McQueen's direction of the characters' psychological motives but I wanted McQueen and Gillian Flynn, the screenwriters, to go deeper into the human condition of what the widows are suffering through. Frankly, you do not need that many characters in this movie despite being a strong ensemble. Again, the screenplay needed to be tightened and the dialogue to be written better. I liked that there are interesting angles of the combination of the Chicago politics/race context that surrounds the reason of why the heist exists. It has great intentions of highlighting a strong female cast and it has a perfect storyline in there somewhere, but the story does not seem as layered especially in the heist. This movie needed to be more balanced in characters, story, direction and organization but it is mostly on the larger tip of the scale. I liked about 60% of this movie which is enough but I do not think it is that great of a film and I will not surprised if people will be frustrated by this experience.
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