Black Widow (2021)
dir. Cate Shortland
Rated: PG-13
image: ©2021 Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
"I think it's bittersweet. I've had an incredible decade working with my Marvel family. I'm going to miss not seeing them every 18 months or two years, like those kind of milestones I always really look forward to.” It’s fitting that this is how actor Scarlett Johansson described the (seeming) end of her run in the MCU as Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow. (MCU overlord Kevin Feige recently said he’s open to Johansson returning to the MCU, if the conditions are right.)
It’s fitting because Black Widow’s standalone movie, delayed for over a year because of COVID, is all about family. Black Widow is a worthy send-off for both the character and Johansson. The picture features some bravura action sequences. I have reservations about a few developments in the film’s last third, but they’re overshadowed by the genuinely fun time I had while watching the latest entry in the MCU.
Black Widow opens with a scenario right out of the FX television series The Americans. We see pre-teen Natasha living in Ohio in 1995 with an apple-pie all-American family: mom, dad, and little sister. His mission complete but his cover blown, the Russian agent and super-soldier counterpart to Captain America, Alexei Shostakov/Red Guardian arrives home on the run, and tells his family it’s time to leave. Upon returning to their homeland, the two little girls are handed over to the administrators of the Red Room, where they are turned into elite Russian spies known as Black Widows.
The movie then flash-forwards to 2016, in the aftermath of the events of Captain America: Civil War. Natasha is confronted by Yelena Belova, her “sister,” about the Black Widow program. The deadly agents are now being controlled with a drug that essentially turns them into unthinking zombies. They have no will of their own, and are helpless to do anything but carry out orders. In the first of Black Widow’s handful of well-crafted action sequences, Yelena is freed from the drug with an antidote. In the second well-crafted action sequence of the film – which is reminiscent, if only briefly, of the most memorable fight scene in 2017’s Atomic Blonde – Yelena convinces Natasha to help her free the other Widows.
The film is a meditation on dealing with past trauma and dysfunctional family dynamics. Natasha, having left the Red Room behind her after defecting to the West and eventually joining up with the Avengers, must confront those she left behind when she got out. There is also a sub-plot involving a villain of Natasha’s own making. Unintended consequences figure into Natasha’s assassination attempt of General Dreykov, the egomaniacal administrator of the Red Room program.
Some of the best personal moments in Black Widow, which come in between – and occasionally during – the action set-pieces, are a result of the terrific ensemble assembled for the movie. Johansson – who recently spoke out about how Black Widow was hypersexualized in Iron Man 2, her first MCU appearance – has the opportunity to invest Natasha with a rich backstory. Johansson has stretched her own acting talents and abilities in avant-garde projects like Under the Skin and deeply emotional turns in films like Marriage Story and Jojo Rabbit in between her appearances as Black Widow. That work pays off here.
Continuing to light up the screen with her luminous talent is Florence Pugh as Yelena. We last saw Pugh as the commanding presence in the horror film Midsommar and as the irrepressible Amy March in Greta Gerwig’s adaptation of Little Women. Natasha and Yelena’s sibling rivalry gives the movie a lot of its fun. The two constantly snipe at each other about the shoddiness of each other’s plans to get out of dangerous situations, and Johansson and Pugh make it charming each time. There is a running joke about the super hero poses that Natasha has struck in news footage during her exploits with the Avengers, and Pugh, in her Russian accent, deflates those moments perfectly as Yelena.
Those asides might have been crafted by MCU-veteran screenwriter Eric Pearson, but I’d like to assume they were a collaborative effort between director Cate Shortland and her stars Johansson and Pugh, in an effort to diminish the over-sexualized comic book poses that Johansson’s character served up to please the early MCU’s male gaze.
David Harbour, breakout star of Netflix’s Stranger Things, is gleefully over the top as Natasha and Yelena’s adoptive father Alexei Shostakov, aka Red Guardian. Harbour gets at the heart of Red Guardian’s insecurities about being perceived as an also-ran to Captain America, and the character brings up their intense (mostly in his own head) rivalry every chance he gets. The moment when Harbour’s Red Guardian barely squeezes himself into his old uniform, after languishing in a Russian prison for decades, is amusing.
Rachel Weisz is good as Melina Vostokoff, the mother figure in this quasi-family unit, but overall, she isn’t given much to do besides be the plot device that gets the sisters inside the Red Room, so they can attempt to free the other Widows.
It’s this finale in the Red Room headquarters, which is a flying city – an example of one of those comic book settings that doesn’t quite make a believable transfer to the screen – where things start to break down. There’s a twist that serves only to fake out the audience. If it weren’t for us, the movie’s characters would have no reason to go about getting into the Red Room headquarters the way that they do.
Ray Winstone puts on a passable, if sketchy, Russian accent as the nefarious General Dreykov. There’s a cockamamie bit of business with pheromones being Dreykov’s protection against Natasha blowing her enemy away the second she sees him. It’s a little silly, but Johansson sells the catharsis for Natasha in this confrontational moment. The climax also left me on a high note with the staging of a mid-air free-fall fight scene between Natasha and the mysterious villain Taskmaster, a character with a photographic memory who can use that skill to mimic every move her opponents make.
Any fan of the MCU should be pleased with Marvel’s send-off of Black Widow. The movie has its issues, but it’s one of the more fun rides that the franchise has offered up. Johansson, Pugh, and Harbour are all a hoot; they, director Cate Shortland, and writer Eric Pearson make Black Widow enjoyable summer blockbuster fare.
Why it got 3.5 stars:
- Not to damn Black Widow with too much faint praise, but it’s a fun and enjoyable time at the movies. I have a sneaking suspicion that it will be one of the ultimately easily forgotten entries in the MCU.
Things I forgot to mention in my review, because, well, I'm the Forgetful Film Critic:
- The movie opens with a pretty great cover of Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit by Malia J.
- One element that I really enjoyed was hearing the hero apologize. It struck me how rarely we hear male super heroes apologize for past actions, and it made Black Widow a more well-rounded character.
Close encounters with people in movie theaters:
- I attended a press screening for Black Widow. There were only a couple dozen people in attendance.