Viola Davis is one of the most talented and prolific actors and has earned multiple accolades. She has won an Emmy Award, a Grammy Award, an Academy Award, and two Tony Awards, granting her EGOT status. And now, she is dominating the streaming charts with her 2018 neo-noir heist thriller film, Widows.
Per FlixPatrol, Widows is currently the No. 4 most-watched movie on Starz in the United States. The film rose to the Top 10 chart this week, almost 8 years after its original release on November 16, 2018. Widows features a star-studded ensemble cast and received critical acclaim, though it sadly struggled at the box office.
Widows Is a Classic Heist Thriller with Dramatic Themes
Widows is one of the best heist movies, following four women living in Chicago, who all have one thing in common: their husbands died during a hit as their getaway van explodes, and they now owe money to the mafia. Crime boss Jamal Manning threatens one of the widows, Veronica, demanding the money back to fund his political campaign.
Veronica decides to go on with the heist and recruits Alice and Linda, who were also married to men from the same criminal gang that died during the getaway gone wrong. The other widow, Amanda, decides not to join their plan. Widows is a suspenseful, thrilling heist movie with incredible acting, drama, and a few shocking twists.
Widows stars Viola Davis as Veronica Rawlings, who was married to bank robber Harry, played by Liam Neeson. Michelle Rodriguez plays Linda, the widow of Carlos, a member of Harry’s gang and a gambler, played by Manuel Garcia-Rulfo. Elizabeth Debicki is Alice, Florek’s widow, an abusive man who was also part of Harry’s gang, played by Jon Bernthal.
Carrie Coon plays Amanda, Jimmy’s widow, who decides not to join Veronica’s plan. Cynthia Erivo stars as Bell, a beautician who is also Linda’s babysitter. Colin Farrell stars as politician Jack Mulligan, while Brian Tyree Henry and Daniel Kaluuya play crime boss Jamal Manning and Jamal’s brother and enforcer, Jatemme, respectively. Robert Duvall, Garret Dillahunt, Lukas Haas, and Matt Walsh also star.
Widows Received Critical Acclaim but Mixed Reviews from Viewers
Widows had a star-studded ensemble cast and received critical acclaim. However, viewers’ reviews were mixed. On Rotten Tomatoes, Widows has a 91% Certified Fresh Tomatometer score based on critics’ reviews, but a 62% Popcornmeter score based on audiences’ reviews. And on IMDb, the neo-noir heist thriller has a 6.8 rating with 109,000 reviews.
Joe Morgenstern from the Wall Street Journal said Widows was “Simultaneously an affecting drama of self-discovery and hard-won female power, a vision of limitless civic corruption, and an incendiary, sometimes violent variation on the theme of carrying a torch.” Brian Tallerico from RogerEbert.com wrote, “The tapestry that is Widows is so deep that it’s easy to miss some of its smaller patterns.”
Widows was directed by British director Steve McQueen, known for films like Hunger and 12 Years a Slave. McQueen co-wrote the script alongside Gillian Flynn, who wrote the novels and screen adaptations for Gone Girl and Sharp Objects. With so much talent in front and behind the scenes, it makes sense that Widows would eventually become a hit, even 8 years later.
Widows is available to stream on Starz in the United States.