Premiered at the Toronto Film Festival September 8,2018
Steve McQueen’s fourth film
Plot(Spoiler Alert)
Four men get killed while doing a heist and their wives are left with nothing after they are gone. Veronica Rawlins, whos husband was the leader of the group, decides to gather the widows together and do a heist themselves if they are to survive. Veronica also owes some money to a couple of guys her husband stole from.
Blaine: “Widows” has been a passion project for Steve McQueen for 35 years. When he was a boy he watched the BBC series and he loved how it was an inspiration for women. When Steve decided to become a filmmaker, he knew that he was going to adapt “Widows” into a film. Steve had already proven himself how great of a director he could be with powerful movies like “Hunger”, “Shame” and his Oscar Winning film “12 Years a Slave”. After “12 Years a Slave”, Steve decided that now was the time to make his passion project, “Windows”. Steve had seen the movie, “Gone Girl” and wanted it’s screenwriter, Gillian Flynn, to help him write the script. Steve told Gillian to watch the whole “Widows” series and that’s what she did. Gillian took notes and then begun working on the script with Steve. Steve and Gillian wanted to create an original story with new characters and have it be something different from the series. The series took place in the UK, but Steve decided to have the film take place in Chicago because it’s a city that has problems and issues which is the same thing the women in this movie are having. It was important for Steve to put together a great ensemble of actors to help bring his passion project to life.
Viola Davis was the only person Steve could see as Veronica Rawlins. Veronica has had a lot of grief starting with the death of her son, who was shot several times because a police officer thought he was armed. But he was just talking on his cellphone. That’s a Oscar Grant III moment right there. Then Veronica loses her husband and she has no one left. But Veronica is a strong woman and when she decides to do this heist she becomes a woman in charge. She doesn’t care if being a thief is the right thing or not because she needs money bad. Plus Veronica’s a woman with a plan. She also pushes these other widows to be strong and do this job if they want money so bad. The money Veronica plans to steal will be enough to provide for herself, for the other widows and to pay back the guys her husband stole from. Viola has to read the script several times in order to understand who this character is for each movie she has been in. Viola loved being challenged by Steve McQueen because Veronica is a strong woman and she has to show how strong she is. Viola is also a great dramatic actress and Steve is good at pushing his actors to do something very strong or dramatic. Viola showed a lot of great emotions through her face. There was one scene where Viola showed Veronica was having emotional pain and that she is stressed but she is trying to hold it together. A lot of the time Veronica is nothing but serious after everything she has been through and what she needs to do. The only thing Viola felt uncomfortable doing in “Widows" was the scenes where she and Liam Neeson cuddle and smooch each other. They were very intimate scenes and Viola is not used to something like that.
Michelle Rodriguez is use to being in movies where she is surrounded by the male gender and being in a group with women was something very new for her. The character, Linda, reminded Michelle of a lot of women she knew growing up, including her own mother. Linda was a painful character for Michelle to play, but Steve wanted her to play Linda because Michelle knew what type of person she was. Linda starts off doing well for herself because she owns a business, a beauty store. But the husband is hardly around and she looks after the children by herself. Michelle knew women who got pregnant at the age of 16 and their partners were hardly there to help them raise the kids. When Linda’s husband dies, she looses her business because the husband paid for the business. Michelle has played a lot of characters who are bad asses, on the police force or a trained soldier in the past and they are all really good with a gun. As a matter of fact one Michelle Rodriguez's hobbies is gun training. Linda is different because she hardly knows how to shoot with gun. She has never even shot a guy. Michelle Rodriguez had never done drama school, but being apart of “Widows” made her feel like she was judging by Steve McQueen’s direction. Michelle has done dramatic performances before, but when your in a film by Steve McQueen he pushes his actors to do a dramatic performance at a high level. There’s one scene where Linda has to get info from this guy as part of the heist job and the person who contains that info is his deceased wife. Losing his wife was a hard thing and he doesn’t like it when people bother him about her work. Linda feels like an ass hole for bothering this man and she knows the pain of losing your spouse because she recently lost her husband. Linda is in grief. I don’t think I have ever seen Michelle do a dramatic scene like that before and she was terrific in it.
What Elizabeth Debicki loved about being apart of “Widows” was that she got to play a character unlike anything she has done in the past. Her character, Alice, is someone struggling to survive. She starts off as this weak woman who's husband is abusive. She is afraid to speak for herself. Alice thinks she is worthless after her husband is killed because he was the one making the money. Alice doesn’t want to be involved with this heist job Veronica has in mind because it’s too dangerous. But doing this job helps her become a different person. Alice starts to find the courage to stand up for herself instead of being someone who doesn’t have a mind of her own. Alice is also a character who has been told she can make money through her looks. Like she could be a model and that was sort of personal to Elizabeth because she’s a tall woman and a lot of people have come up to talk to her about her physical appearance. There’s one scene in “Widows” where Alice is in charge of buying the guns for the heist and she’s not sure which ones are perfect. Then she sees a woman who looks like she knows guns. Alice has this woman pick out the perfect guns for her by pretending they are to protect her from her abusive husband and she says it with a different accent. Elizabeth was so great in that scene and I was very impressed with the accent and how she said her lines so fast.
Cynthia Erivo’s background is music and she does acting as well. Cynthia did a Broadway version of “The Color Purple” and the casting director for “Widows” saw it and told Steve about Cynthia. Cynthia had only been in one movie before “Widows” and that was “Bad Times at the El Royale” and she couldn’t believe that Steve McQueen wanted her to be in his next movie. Cynthia’s character Belle, is someone who works her ass off to make money and she hardly sees her daughter because she is too busy providing for her. Belle is very energetic, fit, fast and she’s not a widow, but she is a single parent. Belle doesn’t become a member of the group until later when the girls need a new driver. Cynthia has always been a fitness person and she likes to exercise because it helps her balance her life. She was perfect for Belle. Cynthia was nervous to be playing a main character, but with the support of everyone on set, including Steve McQueen she felt calm. It was important for Cynthia to make Steve McQueen happy. Cynthia wasn’t sure if the audience would like Belle because she starts off as an outsider. Belle’s not the bad girl type of person, she’s really sweet, but she is also strong enough to defend herself like when Veronica is against having her apart of the club. It’s amazing to see all these different types of things in one character.
Jatemme Manning, played by Daniel Kaluuya, is a mob enforcer and also one of the guys Veronica owes money to. What is weird is that he is trying to mess up her heist plan. He stalks Veronica and sees what she is up to. When the girls finally get the money, he steals their van and the money. Those girls worked hard to get that money they stole and shortly after he drives off, they go after him with car they stole, hit the van, make him swerve and he gets himself into a terrible crash that kills him. Jatemme was the violent type of person. Through the film you would see him giving threatening looks to people, shooting them in the face, stabbing them, having them beaten up to death by his thugs, but he makes one mistake in the end and that is messing with the wrong women. Hans Zimmer was Steve McQueen’s composer on “12 Years a Slave” and Hans has had a lot of experience in composing scores. In fact, Hans had a connection with “Widows” the series. Hans was a team member for the music department on “Widows” back in the ‘80s. Hans would do anything for Steve because he loves the work Steve does and he thought it was wonderful that Steve was going to turn “Widows” into a film.
There’s a shot in “Widows” where Colin Farrell’s character, Jack Mulligan, is getting into a car and being transported to somewhere else and it’s this long take that just shows the front of the car during the drive. Jack is a politician running for mayor and during the drive he is complaining about how this job is too much for him and how he never wanted to be apart of it. He’s saying all this to his assistant and it doesn’t show the inside of the car during this scene. You just hear Jack going out of his mind. The shot ends with Jack arriving at the next location he is supposed to be at. Through the film you see Veronica as this serious, devastated woman who has lost so much. And in the end, Veronica finally calms down and tries to make a new start for herself by making friends.
