The wives of New York gangsters in Hell’s Kitchen in the 1970s continue to operate their husbands’ rackets after they’re locked up in prison.
With “This is a Man’s World” playing in the background, it is hard to imagine that such a badgered trio of females would emasculate an entire community of male domination in such a short period of time. This is true, however, of a few lowly women, who stood by their unappreciative and manipulative men just because it was the right thing to do. Things changed profoundly though when their mobster husbands were sent to prison after a deal gone bad and the security systems which were put in place to take care of them, kept coming up short physically, emotionally and most definitely, financially. Director Andrea Berloff, known for her work in 2015’s “Straight Outta Compton,” deliberately gives us a run for our money when she sets the tables to turn a whole 360 degrees with the reversal of roles in this feminine mobfest.
Comediennes Melissa McCarthy (Kathy) and Tiffany Haddish (Ruby), along with Elisabeth Moss (Claire), team up together as a group of incorrigible females who are forced to reckon with the fact that they have no sustainable skills that will help them forage together for the three years that their husbands will be spending in prison for their Irish Mobster activities. While they have found a common bond amongst each other, they each have a diverse skillset that goes widely unnoticed until they step into survival mode and learn how to play the games that their husbands have participated in to control their destiny. While they each are willing to admit they never gave much thought to freeing their way through the boroughs of Hell’s Kitchen, they are forced to brainstorm to come up with a plan to take their lives back and give the stragglers a run for their money.
Kathy, Ruby, and Claire start out with an innocent plan to collect money from local businesses for protection to ensure that they won’t be messed with. When they get flack from the competition, they realize that they must get a higher power on their side in order to have a smooth transition and develop a stronghold over the area that was previously controlled by their husbands. In an attempt to make deals to secure their future, the trio becomes divided by their own personal goals, their individual Achilles heels, and an overall greed that none of them could predict at the onset. This unavoidable dilemma results in taking on the entire Irish Mobster Protocol, by killing, disposing of bodies, transferring funds, getting more protection for themselves and setting higher goals. The takeover becomes more entangled when they are informed that their husband’s release from jail is much quicker than they anticipated and they have yet to discuss the plan of how to maintain their feminine take-over and continue with the power they’ve become accustomed to, once their men get back in their lives full time. With little time to make the proper adjustment, the women turn on one another and in the end, the result becomes fateful, disgusting and ingenious all at the same time.
Andrea Berloff did a great job in developing both male and female mobster characters who when partnered together made one hell of a team, however, some individual aspects were extremely understated or grossly overstated, making for a unique combination of entertainment that gave power to the story but in several areas seemed at times unnecessary to prove a point. While the racism and sexism should have been noted for the period of its time, some of the gruesome details could have been a little less descriptive. Overall, the movie is entertaining and powerful and makes for one heck of a topic of conversation around the table.
Now available on Digital HD and on Blu-ray & DVD November 5th
