Film review: Irreverent fun as Black Widow finally gets her sardonic, self-aware due
Scarlett Johansson and Florence Pugh’s sarcastic sister act brings subversive new edge to the Marvel Universe
Black Widow opens July 9 at cinemas and streaming via Disney+.
A SELF-MOCKING superhero movie. An action flick with hidden messages about human trafficking. A caustic female buddy spy caper. A dysfunctional-family comedy that reads like a sardonic The Incredibles.
Black Widow mixes it up in its wildly entertaining drive to subvert the Marvel franchise.
And as weird as this will sound for an Avengers movie, a lot of its success comes down to the acting. Scarlett Johansson, Florence Pugh, David Harbour, and Rachel Weisz make the most of material whose tone feels like that of a smarter, more sarcastic Thor: Ragnarok. In Aussie director Cate Shortland’s hands, the overall effect makes self-serious, faux-empowering female-superhero fare like Wonder Woman look like the real joke.
Set long before Endgame (and, for those who care, nestled time-wise between Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War), Black Widow finds Avengers member Natasha (Johansson) reuniting with her sister Yelena (Pugh, a standout in films from Lady Macbeth to Midsommar). It’s the first time they’ve seen each other since they trained as girls in a brutal Soviet assassin program called the Red Room, and there are trust issues: before you know it, they’re strangling each other with a Budapest safehouse’s chiffon curtains.
From there, Johansson and Pugh build sarcastic, taunting rapport. When Natasha isn’t mocking the number of pockets on one of Yelena’s assassin vests, her sister is making fun of Natasha’s over-stylized battle technique: “Why do you do this thing while you fight, with the arm and the hair? You’re posing!”
Together, they take on the brainwashing program that turned them into deadly killers in the first place, first hooking up with the “father” and “mother” they once lived with as a fake spy family in Ohio—Alexei (David Harbour) and Melina (Rachel Weisz). Harbour, better known as the cop in Stranger Things, is hilarious here as a kind of gruff, oversized Russian teddy bear. His idea of praising his two would-be daughters is, “You both have killed so many people… I couldn’t be more proud of you.” And just watch him try to squeeze into his old Red Guardian body suit.
The key is that, much like Taika Watiti’s parodic approach to Thor: Ragnarok, the characters here wink about how ridiculous the subject matter is, whether it’s a counteragent to chemical subjugation or a villain in a skull mask and metal body armour throwing death disks.
Yet, unlike Thor: Ragnorok, or Loki for that matter, Black Widow makes the bold move of trying to undercut that irreverent humour with deeper meaning. Along with messages about makeshift families (given the trainwreck of her own upbringing, Johansson considers the Avengers her real clan), the film acknowledges the more sinister implications of stolen immigrant girls being moulded into soldiers. (“I take out the trash,” Ray Winstone’s villain Dreykov says, in a statement that speaks directly to the way the world takes advantage of underprivileged women and girls.) Alongside that, Johansson and Pugh are astute enough actors to hit the right, complex tone, allowing vulnerability and hurt to seep through their biting sarcasm.
But, yes, this is a film about women in ludicrous leather bodysuits with strategically placed holsters taking part in hyperactively edited action sequences. Early in Black Widow, we see Natasha watching Moonraker for the umpteenth time, and there is a definite shallow and outrageous Bond-esque approach to the action sequences set in exotic spots—one sequence over the rooftops of Budapest, and then through its old streets on motorcycles.
But amid those more surface thrills lies an engrossing little story about a character who was often a hollow prop for the Avengers’ more well-rounded male superheroes. It’s fun to finally see Black Widow get her due--in the least earnest way possible.
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