Widows' Review: An elegant and sinister thriller sets the tone

One of the most anticipated world premieres at the Toronto International Film Festival this year: widows, Steve McQueen Reinventing the 1980s British miniseries on gangster women engaged in burglary after their husbands were killed as part of a despicable duty. The hype was there for a good reason. McQueen's latest film, 12 years of slavery, won the best picture (and several other Oscars) and made nearly 200 million dollars worldwide.

In addition to that, McQueen co-wrote the widows scenario with Missing girl author Gillian Flynn. And then there is the distribution! Oh, the actors: Viola Davis, Elizabeth Debicki, Michelle Rodriguez, Cynthia Erivo, Daniel Kaluuya, Brian Tyreus Henry, Colin Farrell, Liam Neeson, and more. It's pretty much the same thing that a studio thriller could have.

I am happy to report that widows realize all these starred promises. McQueen made an elegant and muscular film, a refined product crossed by a ribbon of tenacious political fury. It's both heavy and light, a vertiginous entertainment that still drives deep social ills.

Located in Chicago, a city where street violence multiplies and clashes with fierce and corrupt wealth. widows is rich in relevant details, promised by McQueen. He is not a subtle filmmaker, exactly, but his indications have a grace. There is nothing didactic about how the film addresses issues broader than its plot; the micro and the macro are woven homogeneously, revealed to inform and curse themselves in the endless turnover of civic life.

Davis plays Veronica, a former teacher union representative whose chaotic life on Lake Shore Drive is chaotic when her husband, Harry (Neeson) – a politically connected thief – rushes into a police shootout with his partners. It's enough to be upset, but Veronica quickly learns that Harry stole a large sum of money from a future Alderman in the 18th district with criminal links (Henry) who would like to get his money back. So, she assembles her team of mourners (and a stranger) to implement Harry's best plans for his next job, with a critical deadline.

There is less action in widows that some might hope for or hope for. But McQueen and Flynn make up for the lack of bang bangs by offering us an exciting tour, if not an introduction, of systems, legitimate or not, that govern the city. They also very well filled their film: politicians and political crooks, henchmen and their dispatchers, and of course our heroines, trying to make their way through this tangle of personal interests to put themselves to good ends.

Going actor by actor to show how everyone does a good job would take too much time. Instead: Davis once again projects a convincing force among the wounds. Farrell and Henry find a cracking chemistry in opposition. Erivo makes a successful debut at the movies and has the best weapons in the world this year. Rodriguez finds a new emotional register that we have not seen before. Everyone strives to do their best in this bowl of prestige popcorn.

But I must distinguish two performers, because they are both excellent, and because they represent many successful aspects of the film. Kaluuya is mesmerizing, with her persistent physicality and the sinister purr of her voice. He also has a large malleable face, capable of alarming large eyes, as in get out, and the threat of his life, he's bored with your human mortality, he's doing here. This is the cool and idiosyncratic articulation of the film, its dark and squeaky appearance.

Debicki, as a battered widow, unsure of her value beyond her appearance, embodies the film's sensibility and humor. (She has a gag that is invaluable.) Debicki has distinguished herself in most of her activities since Gatsby the magnificent (please watch it in The man from U.N.C.L.E.), and here she ostensibly plays the second track with an imposing mastery. She and Davis are listening very well, and she is lending delicate scenes with Lukas Haas as a rich daddy sugar type the painful shade they need.

The film exists in a space where gender and racial politics are always immediate, that is to say that the film exists in the real world, even if it is a reinforced version. McQueen evokes these charged dynamics with resonance, both by showing them through an intelligent mise-en-scene and by confronting them directly – especially in a brief but devastating back-step that founds the film in a very contemporary crisis. I'm vague because I do not want to ruin anything, but I can say that McQueen does not deny his movie a social message. The speed and purity with which it was introduced only worsens its power.

All in, widows stay very entertaining. McQueen does not go beyond the plot with a film too elaborate; the film has a confident style without smoothing or shine. This is the kind of studio film we want them to perform more often, an author who enjoys a lot while dealing with his most serious impulses. widows is the rare film of its size to create a beautiful balance. Nothing is inconsequential in McQueen's film, and yet you leave the theater feeling like you're coming out with something grand.

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