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After their career-criminal husbands are gunned down and their underworld rivals come to collect a debt, Veronica (Viola Davis), Linda (Michelle Rodriguez) and Alice (Elizabeth Debicki) realise that they’re all dead unless, they team up to complete the last heist their husbands had planned. The women have nothing in common except being recently widowed (and being in a lot of trouble) but somehow, they’ll have to find a way to work together to survive.

A heist movie from Steve McQueen and Gone Girl’s Gillian Flynn was always going to be a hell of a ride, even before you factor in the incredible ensemble. Issues of police brutality, political corruption, interracial marriage, racism, sexism and gender inequality all bubble beneath the surface, and the tension just keeps rising.

As with Gone Girl, the story is told in non-linear fragments, and bit by bit, the whole picture comes into focus. Details matter, and McQueen’s camera work lingers just enough to let them register with you so that you enjoy the payoff later. The story is fraught, the characters master portraits of desperation, and as events play out, you have the sense that this story could go so many different ways — until it draws to its final act, and you realise that no, there’s no other possible end that would have satisfied other than what unfolds. The final act twists seem inevitable in retrospect, but they’re still thrilling to watch unfold.

It goes without saying that Viola Davis is superb: her Veronica is a dignified, elegant woman whose spine is made from pure steel. Her journey from desolate grief to grim resolve and hard-won strength is fascinating to behold and it might, hopefully, gain her a second Oscar. Elizabeth Debicki and Michelle Rodriguez, both playing against type, more than hold their own with Davis, completing a central trio to be reckoned with. The men are here more as supporting characters — Liam Neeson is tender and troubling as Davis’ husband, and Colin Farrell and Get Out’s Daniel Kaluuya anchor the threatening intersection of politics and the underworld that the widows now find themselves in.

Widows is a little too tense to really call a ‘popcorn flick,’ but it’s an enjoyable movie (that might cause a splash come awards season) nonetheless.

Widows is on wide-release now.