ada the leading man is my tpye

Phonearl Good start, but then it gets ruined

Lollivan It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Alistair Olson After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

chaos-rampant If you ever wondered how classic Hollywood would look in a modern guise or whatever happened to it, it's right here. Shots, actors, dialogue, the way sets are framed, the whole language is the very same, in color this time. It's very much a movie from the 40s.It's film noir in fact, an interesting one in the way it reverses and makes desire erupt from beneath. A woman as investigator, looking around the country for another woman. A woman who we understand has no experience with men and has led a boring office life, looking for adventure. She enters the world of this second woman who embodies all that she's missing in hers; unabashed experience with men, a life of intrigue.The setting is Hawaii and suitably exotic as a matter of both sensual (meaning open to the senses) and artificial, mirroring the fiction the widow weaves around her. At one point we drive in view of a volcano erupting in the distance, a glimpse of heaving urges beneath the narrative ground.Interesting is this confluence of identity that is a central tenet of noir. The woman who investigates enters the other's world by posing as a charmless, reserved girl, but which we understand is very much her own self, very thin boundaries. Through her she has an entry into a world of being wanted, a charming man takes her out on a trip, but as she succumbs to the role she begins to lose sight of the plot. On the other end we note all this as a narrative being authored by the femme fatale, using surrogate desire as the lure into a story. The story the widow was preparing is that the girl became so obsessed with a story where she killed romantic partners for money, she killed to create it, becoming who she came to catch. This is all great to see, intricate in conception, and could have been potent as a primary text for Vertigo or Lady of Shanghai style annotation where obsessive desire takes over the controls. Lynch and Rivette were extrapolating noir in their own way at this time.It has silly resolutions in the end that make movie sense only, and a less investigative camera than I'd like, more Preminger than Welles. But it's more worthwhile than many of so called neo noirs where the plot matches the edges of noir but they miss its real crux.Noir Meter: 3/4 | Neo-noir or post noir? Neo

brchthethird This is a rather ordinary mystery/potboiler in which a game of cat-and-mouse is played between two women. I said it's ordinary because there really isn't much to distinguish it from other similar movies except that the two leads are women. The acting is serviceable, and no one really gives a breakout performance. The film's greatest weakness is probably in the writing. The film starts out strong, but it's as if the writers ran out of ideas when it came to the final act. The pacing slows down a lot (and wasn't even perfect to begin with, given all of the time lapses) and the story begins to focus on a love triangle that really isn't compelling at all. Some lesbian/homoerotic tension is hinted at and, as if to give the perverts in the audience something to guffaw at, culminates in one of the quickest and most awkward kisses I've ever seen. They also don't treat the women in the film very kindly either, particularly the two leads. The only type of independent women they have are either manipulative bitches or hard-working women without much time for romantic endeavors, and both of them are presented as sex objects throughout the entire running time. Debra Winger's character is of the second type and is constantly subjected to crude comments and unwanted sexual advances, while Theresa Russell is the other type, who sees marriage as the pinnacle of her life even if she uses it to her own nefarious purpose. There are some glorified cameos by Dennis Hopper and Nicol Williamson which are entertaining. It's too bad that they weren't in the film more, but they do elevate the material somewhat in their limited screen time. Overall, I'd say this is about two thirds of a decent movie, despite the implausibility of it all.

LeonLouisRicci Good Looking Film that has Disappointment Written All Over it. It is Sleek, yet Surprisingly Unsuspenseful. Theresa Russell Steals the Show Showing some Depth to the Title Character but Ultimately the Movie is Brought Down by Some Sloppy Editing and Rushed Exposition.It has Sheen but is Short on Thrills as it Often Cuts from or Eliminates Scenes that Seem Essential and Adds Others that are Supremely Superfluous or Silly (like the shower part with Winger). Speaking of Debra Winger, She is Boring, Clichéd, and Bland as a Modern Professional Woman that has Joined the Workforce, so Therefore Must be Written as "one of the boys". Much has been Read Into that.With No Dating Skills and Frumpy Clothes She Buys a Gun for Some Reason and then has it set off the Alarm at the FBI (this is supposed to be a smart Agent) and is Lectured on Firearms by Her "smart" Boss that Tells this Law Enforcement Officer to "Take it back to Sears." The Motivation Behind that Scene is Anyone's Guess.There is a bit of Chemistry Once the Investigation Collides and the Two Women Meet Near the Bedroom Battlefield, but that Part of the Film, while the Best Part, is Short and Leads to a Muddled Conclusion that is about as Unsatisfying as the Film Itself.Overall, this is a Feminine Fantasy, some Perverted Wish Fulfillment for Eighties "Greedy" Women, who were Left Out of the Market and do Their "Gordon Gekko" not with Stock Manipulation, but with a More Natural and Organic Talent.

arthaupt1 When I saw 'Black Widow' in a theater in the '80s, my first thought was: This seems just like the great Noire novel 'The Eye of the Beholder' (1980) by Marc Behm. That book was made into a tolerable French movie in 1983, directed by Claude Miller; then an American-made remake in 2000 with the same title as the novel, starring Ewan Mcgregor. I confess I could only bear 5 minutes of the Mcgregor version before hitting the remote. (Not your fault, Ewan!) The plots in 'Widow,' the novel, and the Mcgregor version are similar: a solitary detective (Winger's part) tails a female serial killer; the former getting ever more involved with his/her quarry as they traverse the landscape and time rolls by. It's an unusual detective plot that would need a very delicate director to make it work. Hasn't happened yet.Two things I still remember of 'Widow': (1) Serial killer Theresa Russell's self-hating meltdown in her car, just perfect; and (2) the filmmakers' taking advantage of an actual erupting volcano in a Hawaiian scene. Alas, the volcano steals the scene.