Widows


Widows is a film based on a Lynda La Plante TV mini series from the 1980s. The film remake was directed by Steve McQueen, who last made 12 Years A Slave, and then I guess wanted to kick back and direct a trashy heist flick.
La Plante made her name with a series of lurid, fairly low rent series in the UK. I never saw Widows so I don’t know how true to the original it is. Some bankrobbers, led by Liam Neeson, get blown up by the police at the start (who appeared to be in a European country somewhere, but it’s revealed to be Chicago). Their money burned up in the flames, their eponymous widows are now responsible for repaying the debt.

Viola Davis plays the matriarchal figure, wife of Neeson. Michelle Rodriguez and the second coming of Joely Richardson star with her, and it’s a fairly bleak, battering film. Sat in front of me were three women who seemed to have expected a light comedy, rather than grim shootings and corruption and a paraplegic being stabbed in a bowling alley. This was not a fun Saturday night film in the slightest.

Still, it’s exciting, what with the suspense and the eventual heist the film works up to. The final twist is pretty vicious – this isn’t a happy film at any point – so when I watched it I was glad to flee. Not that I realised I was running into Perth on a Saturday night, another circle of hell…

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