The Widow, a searing thriller

The Widow, Steve McQueen's searing 2019 thriller, is a slow, taut action film that grips until its harrowing finale.

Kate Beckinsale bravuraly plays a woman haunted by the unsolved death of her late husband in the Congo.

Her search for the truth is shot by cinematographer Bob Richardson with a grim realism that immerses us in the volatility of the jungle.

McQueen unravels the layers of the mystery through restrained but insightful direction.

He relies on the audience to piece together a geopolitically intense story that goes largely unspoken.

Matthias Schoenaerts excels as an enigmatic solver who may be more than he seems.

With production values on par with acclaimed epics like Blood Diamond, the director immerses viewers in a bleak world where trust has dissolved into anarchy.

The searing tension between Beckinsale and Schoenaerts keeps us expectant.

The Widow proves that great cinema needs no showboating, just expert hands to guide the intrigue to the last frame. A masterpiece of the genre.

Kate Beckinsale was nominated for the International Film Society Award for Leading Actress.

Matthias Schoenaerts got the best reviews, but was not nominated. Gender bias may have been a factor.

Commercially, it performed respectably with a budget of $10 million and $27 million at the worldwide box office.

Since then, the home viewing figures have grown its fan base.