Black Widow (1987)

Strictly average movie

Instant Favorite.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

This is an engrossing film, one that merits repeated viewings. It's a cat and mouse game between two women, one a sociopathic serial killer and the other a justice department employee determined to track her down. There's great location photography in Washington, DC, New York, Denver, Seattle and, ultimately, Hawaii. Bob Rafelson's direction is taut. He moves things along quickly never letting a scene go on too long. Best of all are the two leading ladies. Debra Winger turns in a winning, self-deprecating performance few of her contemporaries could match. Theresa Russell isn't really a great actress, but her uncertainty contrasts well with her character's cold calculating determination. Both women look great, which adds to the film's already fine visual appeal. The plot is full of holes, yet it's so entertaining they're easily overlooked. And considering that the film is already thirty years old, it still seems current, despite the land line phones, clunky computers and big shoulder pads.

Roger Ebert's review of "Black Widow" is pretty much spot-on: this is an interesting movie with a great movie trapped inside it. There are several moments where it seems to be on the verge of something truly exciting, but it never quite makes the leap, and its moralistic ending is a letdown. Maybe it needed a director like Brian De Palma or Paul Verhoeven to give it a kick; now it's scenic, but a little flat. On the other hand, a female-driven erotic-police-psychological thriller is not a common thing, and this one does maintain its female perspective all the way through. And the two leading women are up to the challenge: Debra Winger is very good, but Theresa Russell is great - this is one of those happy occasions when an actor finds a role that is so perfectly suited to them that it seems as if they were born to play it. Damn she's awesome in this film. **1/2 out of 4.

If you ever wondered how classic Hollywood would look in a modern guise or whatever happened to it, it's right here. Shots, actors, dialogue, the way sets are framed, the whole language is the very same, in color this time. It's very much a movie from the 40s.It's film noir in fact, an interesting one in the way it reverses and makes desire erupt from beneath. A woman as investigator, looking around the country for another woman. A woman who we understand has no experience with men and has led a boring office life, looking for adventure. She enters the world of this second woman who embodies all that she's missing in hers; unabashed experience with men, a life of intrigue.The setting is Hawaii and suitably exotic as a matter of both sensual (meaning open to the senses) and artificial, mirroring the fiction the widow weaves around her. At one point we drive in view of a volcano erupting in the distance, a glimpse of heaving urges beneath the narrative ground.Interesting is this confluence of identity that is a central tenet of noir. The woman who investigates enters the other's world by posing as a charmless, reserved girl, but which we understand is very much her own self, very thin boundaries. Through her she has an entry into a world of being wanted, a charming man takes her out on a trip, but as she succumbs to the role she begins to lose sight of the plot. On the other end we note all this as a narrative being authored by the femme fatale, using surrogate desire as the lure into a story. The story the widow was preparing is that the girl became so obsessed with a story where she killed romantic partners for money, she killed to create it, becoming who she came to catch. This is all great to see, intricate in conception, and could have been potent as a primary text for Vertigo or Lady of Shanghai style annotation where obsessive desire takes over the controls. Lynch and Rivette were extrapolating noir in their own way at this time.It has silly resolutions in the end that make movie sense only, and a less investigative camera than I'd like, more Preminger than Welles. But it's more worthwhile than many of so called neo noirs where the plot matches the edges of noir but they miss its real crux.Noir Meter: 3/4 | Neo-noir or post noir? Neo

"Black Widow" is an entertaining thriller about a psychopathic killer called Catherine Paterson (Theresa Russell) whose modus operandi involves marrying and murdering wealthy men before inheriting their fortunes and disappearing without trace. This woman of many identities is eventually pursued by a government agent and an unusual and intriguing relationship soon develops between the hunter and the hunted.When a Justice Department agent who's involved in analysing computer data inadvertently discovers the existence of a series of deaths that bear certain similarities to each other, she becomes convinced that they're all the work of a serial killer. Unfortunately for Alexandra "Alex" Barnes (Debra Winger), her suspicions are based on intuition rather than hard evidence and she's unable to convince any of her colleagues or superiors that her findings warrant investigation.The cases that Alex has studied involve the deaths of middle aged men who were married to a significantly younger woman. They had all died in their sleep and their deaths had been attributed to a rare condition called Ondine's Curse. Alex's persistence eventually pays off and she's authorised to go undercover to identify her suspect and prevent any further victims from being added to the list.Alex's investigations lead her to Hawaii where she meets up with her suspect and the two women develop a friendship and become attracted to the same man. Catherine marries Paul Nuytten (Sami Frey) who's an international hotelier but when the police are investigating his apparent murder, they find evidence which points to Alex's guilt and she seems to be in a tight spot when she subsequently gets arrested and imprisoned.An unusual feature of this movie is the nature of the relationship which develops between Catherine and Alex. The two women are quite different as Catherine is glamorous and Alex dresses in a style which is more dowdy and unattractive. Alex seems to deliberately play down her femininity but at the same time appears to be fascinated by Catherine who unashamedly and very successfully, uses her sexuality to get whatever she wants.The sexual undercurrent which is hinted at initially is reinforced in a scene in which the two women practice mouth to mouth resuscitation on each other and also on another occasion when Catherine grabs Alex and kisses her aggressively. They bond by sharing things but there's also a lack of trust between them as neither loses sight of the fact that they are actually adversaries.Catherine Paterson is a fascinating femme fatale who's very meticulous in researching her potential victims. She's very skilled at learning all the things she might need to know to communicate easily with her targets and also has a marvellous ability to change everything about herself in order to snare her next victim. Depending on which husband she has at the time, Catherine is variously seen as being sophisticated, a woman with a strong Texan accent or a more reserved lady who's rather demure.Theresa Russell is particularly good at conveying Catherine's mysterious nature, her uncertain motivations and of course, the different characteristics she assumes when she's in the company of her various husbands. Debra Winger gives a fine performance as the dedicated workaholic who's obsessed with Catherine and determined to bring her to justice. The supporting cast are also good and James Hong is terrific in his minor role as a sleazy and sharp tongued private eye.