At this point, it is safe to say 2018 has not been a great year for film. It has not even been a good year. Some even say it is one of the worst years for film, and “Widows” depicts this perfectly.

“Widows” is directed by Steve McQueen (“12 Years a Slave”) and co-written by Gillian Flynn (“Gone Girl”). It features an all-star cast with the likes of Viola Davis (“Fences”), Michelle Rodriguez (“The Fate of the Furious”), Elizabeth Debicki (Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2”), Cynthia Erivo (“Bad Times at the El Royale”), Colin Farrell (“Roman J. Israel, Esq.”), Brian Tyree Henry (“Hotel Artemis”), Robert Duvall (“In Dubious Battle”), Liam Neeson (“The Commuter”) and Daniel Kaluuya (“Black Panther”). In it, four members of a heist team, led by Neeson’s character Harry Rawlings, are brutally murdered in a botched heist job, leaving it up to their widows to pick up where they left off in order to appease the dangerous criminal from whom he stole, who also happens to be running against Farrell’s character for city council.

One of the first problems that catches the eye is story pacing and flow, of which there is none. Typically, in a story made for filmmaking purposes, there is an incident to establish the story, followed by the main character having to deal with the fallout, which usually culminates in them making a decision that propels the story forward. Here, the initial heist goes wrong, but the problem is that after this, rather than following the problems surrounding Harry’s widow Veronica, the film launches into a subplot surrounding Farrell’s political rivalry with Henry, as well as his hateful relationship with his father, played by Duvall. It is not until about the half-hour mark that Davis’ struggle and turmoil is established, when Henry shows up at her house, demanding she return the $2 million Harry stole from him, which causes her to round up the rest of the widows to get the plot rolling.

While this does not seem like much on paper, the big screen causes a slow period in which it feels like nothing is happening because the confounding amount of subplots causes the main tension to become extremely muddled, taking up more screentime than the main one. Subplots in a film are not a bad thing. In fact, they are necessary to fill out a film’s runtime. But too many of them, in the hands of someone who may not have a lot of experience, can cause the story to be confusing.

That is just one of the many problems in this film. Now, the overuse of subplots to make the main story confusing is one thing, but the film takes it 20 steps further, attempting to mix in messages concerning racial tensions and political handling of lower socio-economic areas, all of which comes off as forced and out of place in what is supposed to be a heist film. This is especially apparent in one scene concerning Davis and Neeson’s son. In the hands of a lesser experienced filmmaker, this might come off as lack of experience, but because this is in the hands of not just one, but two people who have turned out some of the best filmmaking efforts of this decade, the problems become even more obvious to those who pay attention. This is made worse by the fact that despite the script being one of the most confusing, jumbled and borderline offensive pieces of toilet paper ever written, the performances are all on point, particularly from Kaluuya, who gives one of the most terrifying performances of the year as Henry’s younger brother and enforcer, easily topping his previous acting efforts.

There are films that make no sense, there are sloppy films, there are offensive films, and then there is “Widows.” Something that started off having a lot of promise and ended up being one of the most disappointing efforts of the year. “Widows” falls flat on its face and is easily one of the most disappointing film efforts of 2018.

Image from 20th Century Fox via YouTube