Review: Widows is a signature slice of cinema featuring powerhouse women

Oscar-winning 12 Years a Slave director Steve McQueen's new film Widows is in cinemas this weekend and it's based on a 1980s British TV show.

"Left with nothing. Capable of anything".

I do love a good tag line and when we are talking about a script co-written by Gone Girl author Gillian Flynn, directed by Steve McQueen, and with the Oscar-winning actress Viola Davis running point, then "capable of anything" they are.

At the very top of this tale we see career criminal Harry Rawlings (Liam Neeson) lead a violent robbery to an explosive end, leaving three very different women without their men.

As the wolves circle, the widows are forced into a very unlikely alliance, with Harry's wife Veronica (Viola Davis) calling the shots.

Among the wolves are the Mulligans, a father and son jostling for political power and respect, and running against them for a slice of ground down Chicago there is a different kind of criminal:  the Mannings (Brian Tyree Henry and Daniel Kayuula).

Both parties want the same thing the widows want: the pot at the end of the rainbow. Harry had planned one bigger job, and they all want in on the action.

Don't go thinking this is the Oceans 8 we all really needed to see, as that does this potent film an enormous disservice.

See Widows for what it really is: a signature slice of cinema with a collective of powerhouse women at its molten core, and they mean business. 

4.5 Stars.

Newshub.