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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 21, 2018)
MOVIES BY M O L LY T E M P L E T O N VIOLA DAVIS AND ELIZABETH DEBICKI WIDOWS Four women team up to pay a debt in Steve McQueen’s heist flick ithin the first few minutes of Widows, a heist goes terribly awry. You’ll see this coming. It isn’t the job that you’re here to see, but the one that sets everything in motion. It’s this disaster that seems to destroy the happy existence of Veronica (Viola Davis) and Harry (Liam Neeson) — no more morning snuggles in their luxe apartment, which seems cold and austere when Veronica is home alone. (At least she still has their perfect dog.) But Steve McQueen’s film is a study in layers, and no scene — no line of dialogue — in Widows is just one thing. Within the framework of a taut genre film, McQueen and cowriter Gillian Flynn (adapting the 1983 TV miniseries written by Lynda La Plante) carefully trace lines of power and inequity. The familiar beats of a heist — the plan, the challenges, the execution — underscore pointed commentary about options: Who has more or fewer of them, and how and why that is. Against the backdrop of a changing Chicago, Veronica finds herself adrift when the men to whom Harry owed money come calling. Harry may be gone, but the money that vanished with him was owed to would-be alderman Jamal Manning (Brian Tyree Henry). Jamal needs that dough to fund his campaign against the established Mulligan family, who regard the position as essentially theirs to inherit. Veronica doesn’t have Jamal’s $2 million. But she does have Harry’s notebook, which contains the plans for his next job. To pull off that job, she enlists fellow widows Alice W (Elizabeth Debicki), whose dead abusive husband followed in the footsteps of her abusive mother (Jacki Weaver, in a tiny part, is electric), and Linda (Michelle Rodriguez), whose dead husband gambled away their ill-gotten gains. Linda brings on the fourth member of their team, Belle (Cynthia Erivo), who works multiple jobs to support her daughter. Widows neatly weaves the political rivalry of Manning and Mulligan into the story of the four women, making a compelling argument for the way abuses and imbalances of power shape a relationship, or a neighborhood, or a city, or the world. The movie is tightly packed and sometimes relies on narrative shorthand to build its characters, but the cast translates that shorthand into affecting performances across the board, from Davis and her stunning embodiment of Veronica’s grief-stricken gravitas all the way down to brief appearances by Carrie Coon and Jon Michael Hill. The twists and turns in Widows’ plot are deeply satisfying, but it’s not simply the film’s clever construction that makes it so compelling; it’s McQueen and Flynn’s willingness to give a heist film depth and resonance. There’s real pain in Davis’s performance, real fear in Debicki’s, and there’s never really any guarantee that everything is going to turn out okay in the end. Men have failed these women — failed to see them as fully human, to understand their pain, to recognize their potential. But the widows see all these things in each other as they, to borrow a famous line, do everything their husbands did, just backwards and in heels (metaphorically speaking). ■ NOVEMBER 23-29 TIX SENIOR & STUDENT $7 SUNDAYS $2 OFF 11/23-11/29 492 E. 13th Ave 541-357-0375 BORDER (GRÄNS) ADVANCE TICKETS RECOMMENDED DAILY 11:45 2:25 5:00 7:25 762-1700 | 180 E. 5TH AVE DAVIDMINORTHEATER.COM MOVIES THAT bijou-cinemas.com MATTER Serving the Eugene Community for Over 35 Years! NOV 23RD - NOV 29TH NO PASSES OR DISCOUNTS FRI-WED 11:00 1:30 4:15 7:00 THU 11/29 SHOWTIMES TBD *FRI/SAT/SUN MATINEE ONLY ($5 TIX) BOY ERASED $3 TUESDAYS CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME? (R) NO PASSES OR DISCOUNTS FRi-WED 11:00 1:45 4:10 6:35 THU 11/29 SHOWTIMES TBD Friday - Sunday 11:00 am, 1:30, 4:00, 6:30, 9:00 Monday - Thursday 1:00*, 3:30, 6:00, 8:30 MID90s PREMIERE WEEK! *WON’T YOU BE *SMALLFOOT MY NEIGHBOR? FIRST MAN 2:55 3:10 THE OLD MAN & THE GUN (PG-13) Final Week! 4:40 DAILY 9:30 FREE SOLO CRAZY RICH ASIANS ADVANCE TICKETS RECOMMENDED FRI-WED 1:00 5:15 7:25 THU 11/29 SHOWTIMES TBD 4:50 Friday - Sunday 12:30 pm Monday - Thursday 1:30 pm METROarts: THE KING AND I COMING SOON: WILDLIFE · AT ETERNITY’S GATE · MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS FINAL WEEK! ADULT $8 | STUDENT $7 | SENIOR 62+ $6 CHILD age 12 & under $6 9:00 ADVANCE TICKETS RECOMMENDED DAILY 11:00 3:15 BEAUTIFUL BOY (R) Final Week! Local beer, wine and cider... & now kombucha on tap! TICKET PRICES: MATINEE before 5pm $6 9:35 TEA WITH THE DAMES *1:00 pm show on Wednesday will be played with open captions Friday - Sunday 2:45, 5:30, 8:15 Monday - Thursday 3:45, 6:15, 8:45 9:45 WIDOWS PROSPECT 7:00 THE SISTERS BAD TIMES AT THE EL ROYAL BLAKKKLANSMAN BROTHERS 7:10 8:45 9:35 43 W. BROADWAY (541) 686-2458 REGULAR ADMISSION $9 ADULTS $8 STUDENTS $6 SENIORS $6 BEFORE 4 PM OPEN EVERY DAY PREMIUM EVENT ADMISSION THU 11/29 7:00 COMING SOON MIRAI VOX LUX MARIA BY CALLAS THE FAVOURITE IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK SHOPLIFTERS COLD WAR BROADWAYMETRO.COM eugeneweekly.com • November 21, 2018 19
