WIDOWS

* * * ½

(Complex heist movie)

This is the year for movies about women empowerment.

Director Steve McQueen has come up with a beauty, filled with twists, turns and a complex plot that requires close attention to details.

Rhode Island's own Viola Davis once again proves that she is one of the best actors on the planet, playing Veronica Rawlins, the widow of a gangster (Liam Neeson) whose entire gang is wiped out, along with the money in a multi-million dollar heist. Veronica gathers the widows together to follow the instructions in his notebook for his next big job.

"Widows" digresses from the typical heist movie, adding elements of sex, politics and family spats, while delving deeply into the lives of mob wives who are left penniless after their husbands' deaths.

Chicago, known for its corrupt politics and out-of-control crime, takes a big hit as the story unfolds, uncovering complex situations that intertwine and eventually come together with a couple of plot twists that we didn't see coming. I was becoming exhausted with the multitude of short scenes that switched from one character to another and seemed to be unrelated.

"Be patience," Joyce whispered. “It will all come together."

As usual, she was right, and the over two-hour came together in an interesting ending and, like a good mystery, things aren't always as they seem.

Rated R for violence, sex and profanity.