Widows review – Steve McQueen dazzles with masterful thriller

The 12 Years a Slave Oscar-winner turns an 80s Lynda La Plante miniseries into a muscular, ferociously entertaining crowd-pleaser packed with superb performancesAs far as unlikely film news goes, word that artist-turned-director Steve McQueen would be following his heart-wrenching best picture Oscar winner 12 Years a Slave with a remake of Lynda La Plante’s ITV miniseries Widows was up there with Werner Herzog playing a villain opposite Tom Cruise in Jack Reacher.

McQueen’s work to date, also including his exceptional debut Hunger, about the 1981 Irish hunger strike, and 2008’s Shame, a devastating drama about sex addiction, has been tough, serious-minded and unavoidably humourless.

La Plante’s unapologetically pulpy crime novels and shows have always courted a wider audience with potboiler plots, audacious twists and feisty female characters.Related: The Hate U Give review – Amandla Stenberg shines in tough teen movie with radical bent

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