Review of Widows (2018) by Peter B — 10 Dec 2018

While the acting was as excellent as you would imagine this stellar cast to be, the actual movie was not. It was very slow and meandering, and also couldn't seem to decide what movie it wanted to be. Did it want to be a film about political corruption? a film about a woman coping with her son's death and the dissolution of her marriage because of it? a feminist heist film? And because of these conflicting plot elements, it introduced way too many plot threads, which only tangentially tied into each other and none of which got any meaningful conclusions.

Another problem I had was with the characters. There were far too many (another symptom of the plot problem), introduced at weird times with sometimes off-putting or incorrect emphasis. One of the main characters for the end of the film isn't introduced until like a third of the way through the film, in such a way that feels jarring and out of nowhere. And none of the characters are truly given enough screen time for them have meaningful development or conclusions, even Viola Davis' character, who got by far the most characterization and development (though still not enough for a satisfying arc in my opinion.).

Other random things: I didn't properly learn Viola Davis's character's name until about halfway through the film. I'm not even sure they say her first name until like a quarter of the way through. Some of the shots were framed weirdly, in a way that made me feel disconnected from the conversations or dialogue. (An entire conversation in a car where you are shown only the exterior of the car driving, the close-up of the preacher with no establishing shot showing you are in a church, many close-ups of the female actors lips and body parts in a way that felt very uncomfortable, etc.).

But really my one word review of this movie would be disappointing. I really wanted to like this movie, but it was so different from what the trailer had made it out to be.