MovieChat Forums > Widows (2018) Discussion > I watched an advance screening: "Widows"...

I watched an advance screening: "Widows" is good but overhyped (spoilers)

posted 6 years ago by JakeSWITCH (504)
4 replies | jump to latest

There are already people clamoring online for this film to be nominated for a few Academy Awards and I'm not too surprised: the direction (Steve McQueen), cinematography (Sean Bobbitt) and diverse cast (particularly Viola Davis) are all super slick and a lot of hot button subjects are touched upon in the script: political corruption, domestic abuse, sexism, police shootings, etc.

But, like everything I've watched and read with Gillian Flynn's name attached to it (she's the co-writer alongside Steve McQueen), "Widows" is stylish but oddly insubstantial fluff.

The film has soap opera plotting - Liam Neeson's side of the story as a surprisingly dumb master thief is as faintly ridiculous as Lukas Hass' part of the tale is contrived (he plays a world class architect who just happens to form a relationship with one of the widows at the perfect moment).

The film is also a tonal mish-mash. There are laughs and one-liners and cute little dogs, alongside gritty scenes, like a handicapped man being repeatedly stabbed in his paralyzed legs with an ice pick.

There's also no escaping the fact that this was originally a mini-series (two seasons of six 50-minute episodes) that has been adapted into a two-hour film. So several characters are underdeveloped (Jacki Weaver, Jon Bernthal, and Garrett Dillahunt get it worst) and the political battle between Brian Tyree Henry, Colin Farrell and Robert Duvall feels like it belongs in a separate movie.

Basically, "Widows" is an entertaining (and kind of silly) heist film brought to you by a lot of wildly overqualified people. I don't think a fancy pedigree should qualify this film for an Oscar but, hey, I also didn't think "The Shape of Water" or "Three Billboards..." were top-tier films, either...

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You can read all of my latest film reviews here: https://www.maketheswitch.com.au/about

[–] replicant4 (219) 6 years ago

(SPOILERS AHEAD).
This is good insight, and I appreciate your opinion.

For me (saw it last night), I really liked it. It was intelligent without being overly convoluted or complicated.
You don't see many intelligent, stylish heist films like this anymore. And the (fantastic) soundtrack really adds to that style, and tone.

It was a nice twist on the typical heist story...having female leads (Ocean's 8 notwithstanding). And extra cool to see Viola Davis really exercise her range. And I think the casting in general was great. A couple of the smaller roles I quite liked were...Lucas Haas and Garrett Dillahunt. A typical cliche I was expecting would be....that the Lucas Haas character would come across as nice and decent, only to end up being a wretched abuser. Instead, he was just a decent guy...with flaws like the rest of us. They (the writers) didn't see the need to make him just another one-dimensional abuser/misogynist, to their credit.

With the Garrett Dillihunt character, GH is always so great in whatever roles he takes. In this movie, I was hoping he'd get a little more screen-time, and would end up doing something heroic. Sure, in a sense he did. But I REALLY wanted to see him do something bad-ass in a scene, which would have tipped us off that maybe in his past, he was quite a bit more than just a driver. Like maybe just....eff-up most of those hitmen in an epic brawl and go down swinging, taking a few of them with him before Daniel K ends-up barely getting a shot off to finally stop him.

Special kudos to Daniel K, by the way. He made for a very menacing enforcer.

In general, this movie had a cool tone and style. I enjoyed it. The nice bonus was hearing Nina Simone...and Sade!

[–] JakeSWITCH (504) 6 years ago

I liked the film and agree with most of your points, although I thought that Garrett Dillahunt's role was underwritten. There was a sense that he had a backstory and a purpose in the film that never eventuated. It was nice that Lucas Haas wasn't a traditional bad guy, just the typical sort of rich guy who might use a high-class escort service, but I did groan inwardly when it was revealed he was a renowned architect and had a friend who was an expert on safe-houses. That was too convenient.

Was "Widows" as Oscar-worthy and important as reviewers are saying it is? In my opinion, no.

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You can read all of my latest film reviews here: https://www.maketheswitch.com.au/about

[–] replicant4 (219) 6 years ago

Great points. Yes, they could have done something really cool with Dillihunt's character. I suppose they didn't because the focus is on the female empowerment--and their ensemble being the heroes (anti-heroes).

[–] JakeSWITCH (504) 6 years ago

Yeah, I assume Dillahunt's character was more fleshed out in the original TV series (which I haven't seen).

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You can read all of my latest film reviews here: https://www.maketheswitch.com.au/about/Jake