Widows review: The thriller joins Ocean's 11 & Heat among the best filming films

A few days before performing their first high security theft, Veronica Rawlings (Viola Davis) and her team of amateur criminals run an exercise. What will the 25-yard race look like with $ 2 million worth of $ 100 bills? They determine what they want, that is, forty-four hell pounds, which will be nothing if the vault is filled with $ 50 bills. A black bag with the heaviest load sends Linda (Michelle Rodriguez) leaning on the floor.

If they are caught red-handed, the money could be the literal death of women. Yes, there is a metaphor, but in Widows, The outspokenness creates a dramatic impulse that pushes viewers back into their chairs and then reverberates on their thorns. Every beat of the new thriller, of 12 years of slavery director Steve McQueen and Missing girl The writer Gillian Flynn delivers an exhilarating performance, a touch of ingenuity, a hint of social commentary or a rhythmic musical replica, and it's time to savor it … long enough … before the film goes to the top speed. accelerates like a car on the run. In the case of the silverware scene, the next reason for gasping, screaming, and rejoicing is the fall of the hammer of Davis' surrogate matriarch:

"The best thing for us to do is be who we are … Nobody thinks we have BALLS TO SHOW THAT. "

[[[[Ed. Note: The rest of this review contains mild spoilers for Widows.]

Merrick Morton / 20th Century Fox

Freely inspired by a 1983 British television series with the same name, Widows Transfer the action to Chicago to find a network of disconnected people sailing the day after a botched flight. A clash with the police killed Harry, Veronica's husband, and her entire team, leaving her in mourning and wondering what the next step is. The reality dissolves Veronica's memories of happier moments when the target of the operation Harry, the head of the Judicial Police, Jamal Manning (Brian Tyree Henry), knocks on his door (and grabs his adorable white terrier by the skin, which is a horror show!). It turns out that the $ 2 million that Harry raised from Manning was a treasure of war to defeat Chicago's lousy Crown Prince Jack Mulligan (Colin Farrell) in an election for an alderman from South Side. Now he wants to get it back. In a month. And Veronica will take it for him.

The surviving plan of the widow arrives posthumously from Harry: a notebook containing plans for another multi-million dollar flight that reads as follows: Danny Ocean Heist for Dummies. If Veronica gets the $ 5 million job, she'll feel free. She just needs a team she finds in the women left behind by Harry's explosive crime that went wrong. Linda, from Rodriguez, is a single mother who discovers that her criminal husband has spent her savings on alcohol and gambling; Alice (Elizabeth Debicki) was "restrained" by money, imprisoned and resorted to luxury prostitution after the death of her boyfriend. Amanda (Carrie Coon), now a single mother of a newborn, leaves the operating room and is replaced by the hairdresser Belle (Cynthia Erivo), who goes fast like crazy thanks to the juggling among several jobs to feed his child and rushing to catch the bus. and that everything works.

Insights into the daily lives of women, which McQueen and Flynn use to prove their stamina and strength of action, convince us that burglary is the only solution. With the glory of Steven Soderbergh Ocean's 11 (and the sensibilities of fortune of his other Detective movie, Logan Lucky), the quartet tinkers the pieces of Harry's plan. We see Linda, a day saleswoman, go into detective mode to decode a set of plans. Later, Alice focuses on a Polish accent to convince a friendly mother to buy her three handguns in a gun show. Loose laws make it all too easy.

20th Century Fox

Placing the film against a corrupt or more corrupt election makes the political angle a given, but the Widows attacking the abyss of gender, gentrification, police brutality and local-style warfare reinforces the most lyrical movements of the film. A scene in which we follow Jack Mulligan from a public development rally to his suburban mansion just a few blocks away – all in one lock on Jack's chauffeur-driven black car, well-ended homes. in sight – constitutes a brutal indictment against the filming of McQueen's Chicago location. Hearing Tom Mulligan from Robert Duvall, formerly of Jack's political dynasty, exchanging words to develop political strategies is a quick punch for the belly; When we find Veronica, the link persists, even if she can not erode her drive. The juxtaposition is a commentary on black feminine power that we rarely see.

Widows is an illuminating film that remains squarely in the category of products that will please the crowd with a perfectly calibrated set. The scenario of McQueen and Flynn is one of the first to invoke the spirit of Heat – not just the action sequences, but the bravado of Pacino, Niro, Kilmer et al. the supreme dialogue of Michael Mann. In the hands of Viola Davis, Veronica is a pendulum that goes from a mourning soul to a cloud of thunder. A tender tour of Rodriguez proves that it is completely underutilized in the Fast and Furious franchise, and that the performances of Debicki and Erivo look like star turns for actresses who have been working tirelessly for years.

Although it's a pleasure to see Farrell play a trembling schmuck and Henry jump from Atlanta at the big moment, it's get out Daniel Kaluuya, an Oscar nominee, steals every ounce of air every time he enters the room. Kaluuya plays Jamal Manning's brother, Jatemme, the muscle of the family, and delivers a performance to both Alonzo Harris and Anton Chigurh. There are bloody outbreaks Widowsand in each of them, Kaluuya hovers like an angel of death.

Widows strike this perfect balance between the talents of McQueen, a director whose films wrestle with the many vicious and artificial battles of society, and Flynn, a master of pulpy stories with great benefits. There are a lot of twists in the movie – and even bouncing over twists – none that I dare to spoil, but each of them left me deeply satisfied in a way I have not felt since. The sixth sense. Even if you see where it is a kilometer, the winding way to see how Widows get there, and the boom that each piece creates as it goes along, makes it one of the best movies of the year and a highlight for a genre rife with imitations.

Widows is now in theaters.