Black Widow

Style over substance. Mood over plot. A director in love with his lead actresses. You can level many accusations at BLACK WIDOW, but a good film it isn't. Sure, it has potential; a decent set-up for one, and a first half hour that looks like it's really going somewhere. Sad, then, that the potential is wasted with a narrative that stalls and ends up going nowhere. The idea of a serial killer who murders a string of husbands for their inheritance is a solid one, and BLACK WIDOW bolsters it with a decent cast: Theresa Russell's icy blonde bombshell is a forerunner to Sharon Stone's femme fatales, while Debra Winger's dogged cop is just quirky enough to be interesting. Kudos for getting all those notables in too: Terry O'Quinn as the superior, Dennis Hopper and Nicol Williamson as potential victims, a nicely sleazy role for James Hong. But somewhere along the line the film loses its way. Instead of concentrating on building the suspense and developing a cat and mouse game between cop and killer, the writer and director become fixated on another kind of relationship between the two women, so much so that all the tension dissipates and it all becomes incredibly boring. There's no danger, no reason to keep watching. Even the twist ending does nothing to improve things. As a contrast, I recently watched the Hitchcock rip-off FINAL ANALYSIS, and despite the clichés it was ten times better than this because it remembered what it was throughout: a thriller, first and foremost.

The first time I saw Black Widow I was 13 and I didn't have a long movie history behind me, of course. I Hadn't seen any films noirs from the 40s or 50s, hadn't heard of Double Indemnity or Gene Tierney yet. So when I witnessed Theresa Russell's identity changes from classy businessman's trophy wife to tacky Texas doll to well-read ancient coin expert, I was in movie heaven. The revelation, though, did not come from Russell but from Debra Winger's performance : from then on I worshiped her and awaited her next role with feverish excitement. Now that I have viewed it about 1 million times on tape, I still think it's a terrific movie with great performances (actually Theresa Russell has rarely been better than here), and there are tons of stuff I love about it : the dialogue, the cinematography, the opening credits, the symbolic mini-scenes (think winger in the shower just before the wedding), Winger's looks. It's a cult classic, on my video shelf anyway.

*possible spoilers so proceed with care* There are plenty of plot summaries here, so let's concentrate on a few specifics. -- Colors. Pay attention to who is wearing red and who is wearing blue or green. The green painted window behind Winger's boss's desk, the green painted windows of the PI in Hawaii. I'm sure there's more going on with this, but I'll have to see it again to pick it up. -- Just for fun, watch this movie pretending Winger's character is male. The whole movie hangs together just fine with very few exceptions. Her name is even androgynous. -- For the people who were unhappy with the ending, I'd like to suggest this: They went ahead with the faked death in order to give Winger a chance to get a confession to the other murders, to satisfy her curiosity. This movie was made back in the days when something like this wasn't beyond the realm of possibility, let's say less improbable than it is today. It may have been something that suffered in the editing. All it would take is a very quick scene with that Hawaiian cop talking to Winger: Cop: "You were right, Alex, we found the poison in the brandy. We could arrest her now, but we're not going to. We're going to play out this little charade idea of yours, mainly to give her time to break the will, which will further incriminate her as part of her past pattern. I know you're afraid she'll pretend this murder was a once-off thing, that she was wild with jealousy about Paul sleeping with you, and so we need time to fly Aunt Sarah out from the east coast to confirm her identity for that other murder. I know it's important to you that we convict her for those other men too, especially the one you met in Seattle whose death you feel responsible for." Winger: "OK." That would have solved the whole problem. -- There are a whole slew of really entertaining supporting roles in this movie, which to me is a mark of a well-made film. Check out that hostile cop in Seattle who is having a very bad hair day. The Hawaiian private investigator I remember so well from Blade Runner. That babe in the tanning bed is Diane Lane. This is one of those movies that's often shown on TV badly edited to make it fit between the commercials in the proper time slot -- which cuts out a lot of the "smaller" scenes. So that's where you saw this movie, you missed a lot. Rent the uncut version. A much richer, better developed story.

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Trailer—Black Widow