Fall Into Her Deadly Web of Hugs and Caring

Okay, okay, so I really watched 2021's Black Widow this time. Mostly it stacks up with everything I'd heard--it has good performances and some sweet moments but lacks a real sense of suspense and the action sequences are weak, both in terms of special effects and composition. The choreography isn't bad, though.

I can imagine a conundrum at Disney. Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) is a character defined by her lack of family who gradually gains one in the Avengers. A standalone movie for Black Widow can't have the other Avengers but Disney, for whatever arcane pact with the corpse of Walt, must always make their movies about family. So what do you do? Give Black Widow another family.

She jokes at one point in the film that she's the girl with no family who now has two. Which is a bit of lampshading, if you ask me, so Disney can have their cake and eat it, too. You know, in this era of "representation", I wonder how anyone who grew up without a family feels about this decision to hook Natasha up with a couple of them.

One of the more charming moments shows her watching Moonraker and speaking along with all the dialogue. One remembers how Winter Soldier was filled with sexually playful dialogue between her and Captain America and rather misses that tone here. Watching her sit down to dinner with an admirable cast is kind of sweet but seems like it should belong in another movie. It certainly does nothing for this film's lagging momentum.

Florence Pugh is really cute as Black Widow's adopted sister though I don't know why Disney is so committed to these "pass the torch" characters. Why not just concentrate on introducing other Marvel characters?

David Harbour is great Russian stereotype as big gentle dad. Rachel Weisz as the mother figure doesn't get much personality. Ray Winstone as the villain is wonderfully effective, a real conceited asshole, and I wish he'd had more screentime.

I suppose after the years of build-up it would be inevitable for the first, and only, solo Black Widow movie to disappoint. Even so, I can't help feeling, "Is that really all?"

Black Widow is available on Disney+.

Twitter Sonnet #1494

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It's a Crowded Web

Over on Disney+ in Australia right now one of the top titles is Black Widow. Not the Scarlett Johansson movie but the 1987 thriller of the same name. I wonder if many Australian viewers found it after searching for the title and genuinely believe somehow Debra Winger's FBI agent is tied into the MCU in some way or that Theresa Russell is in fact Scarlett Johansson. Anyway, I'd never seen it, and I'm not springing thirty bucks for a middling MCU movie, so last night I tuned in for director Bob Rafelson's sordid tale of a predatory beauty and the regular gal trying to catch her. It turns out this isn't a great movie but it has its good points, not all of them intentional.

The main problem with the film is that its central character isn't all that interesting. Theresa Russell plays the mysterious woman whose name changes for each of the wealthy men she seduces, marries, and murders. Russell is gorgeous and dastardly but her acting skills aren't up to essentially playing multiple characters. I don't know what accent she's supposed to have when she's the Texas bombshell but I don't think anyone in Texas would recognise it. Worse than the superficial aspects of her character, though, are that her motives are never really explored.

She claims at one point to truly love each and every one of these guys. So why does she kill them? Is she just really greedy? Surely after the first millionaire, she could've settled comfortably somewhere. What makes her tick? Why does she scream in frustration when she can't track down the reporter snooping about her?

Alex (Deborah Winger) watches her from another car, both cars bathed in DePalma-ish neon and raindrops.

Generally speaking, the film doesn't have the most interesting cinematography, which makes a moment like this kind of conspicuous.

Alex was initially investigating the death of a mafia don who died of a rare disease. She came across the story of one of Russell's husbands, who also apparently died from the disease. So to prove that the don was murdered, she decides to prove Russell's husband was murdered. And that's the last time we ever hear about the don.

Alex's boss (Terry O'Quinn) gives her unsolicited neck massages and makes dismissive noises at the very idea that a woman could seduce powerful men and murder them, part of a vaguely feminist statement the film weakly gestures at. Really, the movie seems more catered to any envious woman reading tabloids about trophy wives and Debra Winger works as a reliable avatar of averageness, avenging the less fortunately pedicured. She certainly gives a better, more natural performance.

There are a lot of good supporting performances in the film, most notably Russell's husbands. Dennis Hopper plays a Texas toy tycoon (that's right) who's in the movie much, much too briefly. We meet him complaining on the phone that one of his new toys has instructions he can't read because, "I'm five fucking years old! You be my daddy, and you tell me how to use it!"

After him we get Nicol Williamson as a heartbreakingly lonely museum curator who thinks he's at last met the woman who understands and shares his passion for ancient artefacts of some kind. Williamson milks every moment with the character and he's so entrancing I desperately wanted him to live.

But, weirdly, all the deaths occur off-screen, you have to glean the information from dialogue in a suddenly new scene of Alex blowing off steam with a local detective or something. Again and again, the film shows the worst instincts for when to have jump cut.

Also in thankless bit parts are Diane Ladd and James Hong. Hong gives a really interesting performance as a sleazy, heroin addicted detective in Hawaii. The bulk of the film is set in Hawaii where Russell's trying to seduce Paul (Sami Frey), which must have been a nice shooting location. The conclusion of the film, presented as a grand twist courtesy of the brilliant Detective Alex, makes not even the tiniest shred of sense. Which, in itself, is kind of impressive.

Black Widow is available on Disney+ in many countries.