Widows is the Oscar-worthy movie Viola Davis deserves and America needs

Steve McQueen is a director who fixes the audience's gaze on uncomfortable truths.

He did it fiveyears ago with his Oscar-winning film 12 Years a Slave,a stunning indictment of the all-too human cost of slavery.

Now he's turned his gaze to America today.

His inspiration: Widowsa British TVseries from 1983 about a group of women who lose their husbands but find plans for a robbery.

Watch the film's trailer:

At the Toronto International Film Festival,McQueentoldCBC News he identified with the women of the show. Women whohe said "were not deemed to be capable, who were judged on their appearance," similar to how he felt as a 13-year-old black boy growing up in London.

Working with Gone Girl novelist and screenwriter Gillian Flynn, they relocated the action to modern day Chicago. In the new film, four wives led by Viola Davisdiscover a heist-gone-wrong has created a situation where they owe a dangerous politician millions.

With McQueen's earlier films,Shame and Hunger, there was an uncompromising quality to what he asked audiences to endure. But with Flynn as his co-writer,McQueen softens the blow with a punch of a plot, invitingaudiences onto a roller coasterwhere theygasp one moment andcheer the next.

Worlds apart

As the four women come to terms withtheir fate, they're forced to rise to the occasion, quickly finding the courage and skills for an audacious crime.But McQueen widens the view, painting a portrait of a divided city in Scorsese-iantableaus of crime and corruption.

At the top of the privilege pyramid are Colin Farrell and Robert Duvall as politicians Jack and Tom Mulligan. Duvall is the the old guard of a racist political dynasty trying to hang on. Farrell plays his ambitiousson. Theirfew scenes together hintat a relationship filled with bitterness and bile.

Edging in on the Mulliganterritory is Bryan Tyree Henry as Jamal Manning. Jamalpositions himself as thepeople's savior, but his brother played by an ice-cold Daniel Kaluyaa shows what the Mannings are willing to do to knock the Mulligans off their perch.

From society dinners, to church potlucks,Widows adeptly captures the uneven mosaic that makes up Chicago.As Flynn told CBCNews Widows captures the idea that,"We live in so many different bubbles today and you could live in your own different space and never meet someone outside of it."

McQueenvisualizes that notion as audiences watch Jack Mulligan finish a political rally and drive from arundown part of the city to his upscaleelection headquarters.

Sean Bobbit, the cinematographer who's worked with McQueenfrom the beginning, captures thejourney in a single shot of a limo's exterior the reflections on the tinted windowof liquor stores and abandoned buildings quickly givingway toplush urban estates a few blocksaway but worlds apart.

'Animal instinct'

In any other film, actors such asDaniel Kaluuya andColin Farrell would be the main attraction. But for Widows they're just the window dressing. The true engine of the film is Viola Davis, who at 53 is finally getting roles worthy of her talents. With a glare capable of stopping time, she plays Veronica whomarshals the women togetherspitting out the line, "No one thinkswe have the balls to pull this off."

Best known for her intensity on the TV showHow to Get Away With Murder,Davis told CBC News working with director Steve McQueen challenged her. She saidMcQueen pushedher to be more vulnerable and feminine, as viewerssee in the tender opening moments with her husband played by Liam Neeson.

Like any heist film, each of the four characters, Davis, Michelle Rodriguez, Elizabeth Debicki and Broadway star Cynthia Erivo are responsible for part of the plan. Typically in caper filmssuch as Ocean's Eleven,thesatisfaction comes from watching the pieces click into place. What makes Widows remarkable is how it makes clear the true cost of each piece.

Steve McQueenhas said part of what inspired him to make Widows, was that after 12 Years a Slave he noticed how many talented female actors weren't working.

By giving Rodriguez, Davis,Debickiand Erivocharacters worthy of their talents,McQueenhas made one of the most vital films of the year.A moviethat sees Americain all its fractured fury.

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars.