My partner was so upset by this film that she made me watch the original TV series from the 80s. Incidentally, it still stands up and makes a lot more sense.
But the question must be asked, in this day and age, why convert something that was a TV series into a film? The story of wives taking on a bank heist feels kind of #metoo in a perverse way so I get that, but the motivation of too many of the major characters simply make no sense.
Colin Farrell plays a snake politician who wants no part in the family business, but already seems to be getting far too involved out of choice. One of the wives has a relationship whose only purpose is to provide a MacGuffin - this would be embarrassing in a student film. There is a Star Wars moment between one wife and another guy where the audience just laughs at how clumsy it is - this might be deliberate but plays no useful part in a heist film. The portrayal of the black gangsters is slightly more nuanced, but the only bits thats stick are uses of violence. There is also one more unexplained major character as you get nearer the end.
Viola Davis is very good, and McQueen clearly remembered her from Secrets and Lies, and most of the rest of the cast do their stuff well. Daniel Kaluuya is chilling. But Chicago itself makes less impact on the film. Some of the location choices were frankly puzzling.
I think the director (Steve McQueen) has managed to string a set of scenes that he feels have real human emotion in them, but has manifestly failed to create a film. Let alone a heist film. A brief look back at the brilliant Heat reveals a director who gave himself to the genre and let the cast breathe life into the characters. This film is treated more like a stage play, with characters already too constrained to expand.
But the question must be asked, in this day and age, why convert something that was a TV series into a film? The story of wives taking on a bank heist feels kind of #metoo in a perverse way so I get that, but the motivation of too many of the major characters simply make no sense.
Colin Farrell plays a snake politician who wants no part in the family business, but already seems to be getting far too involved out of choice. One of the wives has a relationship whose only purpose is to provide a MacGuffin - this would be embarrassing in a student film. There is a Star Wars moment between one wife and another guy where the audience just laughs at how clumsy it is - this might be deliberate but plays no useful part in a heist film. The portrayal of the black gangsters is slightly more nuanced, but the only bits thats stick are uses of violence. There is also one more unexplained major character as you get nearer the end.
Viola Davis is very good, and McQueen clearly remembered her from Secrets and Lies, and most of the rest of the cast do their stuff well. Daniel Kaluuya is chilling. But Chicago itself makes less impact on the film. Some of the location choices were frankly puzzling.
I think the director (Steve McQueen) has managed to string a set of scenes that he feels have real human emotion in them, but has manifestly failed to create a film. Let alone a heist film. A brief look back at the brilliant Heat reveals a director who gave himself to the genre and let the cast breathe life into the characters. This film is treated more like a stage play, with characters already too constrained to expand.