Widows

"Left with nothing. Capable of anything."

2018 2h 9m EN

😐

6.5

MID

🔥

91%

CERTIFIED FRESH

💯

METACRITIC

⭐

6.8

IMDB

★6.5TMDB · 2,548🍅91%Rotten Tomatoes●84Metacritic★6.8IMDB · 107,341

DramaCrimeThriller

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

A police shootout leaves four thieves dead during an explosive armed robbery attempt in Chicago. Their widows have nothing in common except a debt left behind by their spouses' criminal activities. Hoping to forge a future on their own terms, they join forces to pull off a heist.

“Left with nothing. Capable of anything.”

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Cast

Viola Davis
Veronica Rawlings
Michelle Rodriguez
Linda
Elizabeth Debicki
Alice
Cynthia Erivo
Belle
Colin Farrell
Jack Mulligan
Robert Duvall
Tom Mulligan
Liam Neeson
Harry Rawlings
Brian Tyree Henry
Jamal Manning

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Steve McQueen
Writers: Jason Millet, Gillian Flynn, Steve McQueen
Languages: English, Polish, Spanish
Countries: United Kingdom, United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released 8 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 3 languages: English, Polish, Spanish.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

International production across 2 countries: United Kingdom, United States of America.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

CAST

Did you know

255+ people credited in cast and crew — a small city's worth of labour.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Steve McQueen, shot by Sean Bobbitt. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Hans Zimmer. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Joe Walker shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Viola Davis and Michelle Rodriguez and Elizabeth Debicki carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Steve McQueen directs. Sean Bobbitt behind the camera. Hans Zimmer scores. Joe Walker cuts. Profitable at the box office. Produced in United Kingdom, United States of America. Dialogue in English, Polish, Spanish.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Released 8 years ago.
2Dialogue crosses 3 languages: English, Polish, Spanish.
3International production across 2 countries: United Kingdom, United States of America.
4255+ people credited in cast and crew — a small city's worth of labour.
5Directed by Steve McQueen, shot by Sean Bobbitt. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
6Original score by Hans Zimmer. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
7Editor Joe Walker shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
8Viola Davis and Michelle Rodriguez and Elizabeth Debicki carry the top of the cast.
9Marketing tagline: "Left with nothing. Capable of anything.".
10IMDB entry: tt4218572 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
11Classified under 16 themes, including "chicago, illinois", "politics", "widow", "feminism".

The technical file

Cinematography: Sean Bobbitt
Original score: Hans Zimmer
Editing: Joe Walker
Production design: Adam Stockhausen
Costume design: Jenny Eagan
Makeup / hair: Sirena Crosby
VFX supervisor: Lars Andersen
Stunt coordinator: Doug Coleman
Runtime: 129 min · 2h 9m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $42,000,000
Box office: $75,984,700
Return: 181% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: Widows (2018)
Rotten Tomatoes: 91% 🍅 Fresh
Metacritic: 84/100
IMDB rating: 6.8/10 · 107,341 votes
MPAA: R

Awards

Nominated for 1 BAFTA Award18 wins & 107 nominations total

Also by

Steve McQueen

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

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Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

cityguide2018-09-05
Director Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave) and Gone Girl author Gillian Flynn co-wrote the screenplay for his crazy-intense looking crime thriller starring queen of all queens, Viola Davis. Those three names are honestly all it would take to lure us to a theater, but it actually gets better: the film, based on Lynda La Plante’s novel of the same name, follows four women whose duplicitous husbands’ deaths lead them down a dangerous path.
cityguide2018-09-05
Director Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave) and Gone Girl author Gillian Flynn co-wrote the screenplay for his crazy-intense looking crime thriller starring queen of all queens, Viola Davis. Those three names are honestly all it would take to lure us to a theater, but it actually gets better: the film, based on Lynda La Plante’s novel of the same name, follows four women whose duplicitous husbands’ deaths lead them down a dangerous path. Widows co-stars everyone, basically, including Daniel Kaluuya, Michelle Rodriguez, Jacki Weaver, Colin Farrell, and Liam Neeson. Think: Good Girls meets Ocean’s 11, but the comedic elements are replaced by Davis staring soulfully into the (incredibly bleak) distance.
mram162018-11-22
★ 6/10
This film contains two movies, and I enjoyed one of them: Widows is the story of a trio of...well, widows, who hatch a scheme to pull off a heist. The reason why the widows choose to pull off this heist in the first place is a threat by gangster-turned-political-hopeful Jamal Manning (played by Brian Tyree Henry). It was his money that the deceased husbands of the women were trying to steal before dying in an explosion set off by a hail of police bullets. The money burned up in the flames, and he wants to be repaid. Veronica Rawlings (played by Viola Davis) comes into possession of the plans for a future robbery that her husband Harry (played by Liam Neeson) was planning, and with no other options she and the other women decide to use the plans to commit the robbery themselves in order to pay off the debt (with plenty of money left over). The cast does a commendable job, with particularly good performances put forth by Viola Davis and Elizabeth Debicki as two of the titular widows, Cynthia Erivo as the babysitter for a third widow (played by Michelle Rodriguez) who gets brought into the scheme, and Get Out's Daniel Kaluuya as a cold-blooded henchman who doesn't need to walk around screaming and shouting in order to be terrifying. Also worth a mention is Robert Duvall, who may not be in the movie a whole lot but is memorable nonetheless. The film is shot well by cinematographer Sean Bobbitt, with one standout scene being the short drive taken by Colin Farrell's Chicago Machine political candidate from an area of blight to the nice, quiet street that he lives on at the edge of the ward where he hopes to be elected as alderman over his opponent (Manning). The camera watches as rundown inner-city buildings give way to nice houses that wouldn't seem out of place in a tidy little suburb. For a while it is interesting to watch as the women, who were not involved in their respective husbands' lives of crime, try to ready themselves for the heist. Midway through the film, however, there's a surprise reveal. I said in the title of this review that this film contained two movies, one that I liked I liked. The movie that I liked ended with this "twist", and this is where the movie that I didn't like began. Not only is the twist totally unnecessary, but the film just seems to go downhill from there. The women, whose robbing skills seemed understandably shoddy up to this point, suddenly seem to work together like a well-oiled machine. There are more twists thrown into the mix (such as the identity of the person they will be stealing from). The fate of the Rawlings' son, hinted at earlier in the movie. is revealed in a poorly executed scene. The climax of the film feels like a second-rate action flick, and the playing-out of the big twist revealed earlier in the film feels contrived. Then the film ends in a, "Really, that's how they're going to end this?" way. I don't hate this film (faint praise, I know), but I feel that there was so much wasted opportunity. If only they had kept making the movie from the first half of this film I could have given it a higher rating, but as it stands I give it a 6 out of 10.