WIDOW'S PEEK
Scarlett Johansson and Florence Pugh steal the show in anemic stand-alone Marvel flick
Is there a statute of limitations on origin stories? Consider Scarlett Johansson's Natasha Romanoff character, a.k.a. Black Widow. She was introduced in Iron Man 2, way back in 2010. The MCU was expanding even then, but still so small that almost no one was yet using the term “Marvel Cinematic Universe.”
Black Widow saw more action in The Avengers (2012) and appeared in six more features until (spoiler alert?) she died in 2019's Endgame.
Now she's back from the dead in Black Widow, set between the wars. No, not the real world wars — we're talking Civil War (2016) and Infinity War (2018). Although the opening sequence takes place in 1995, which is coincidentally when Captain Marvel first came to Earth. It's a crowded timeline.
Meet young Natasha (Ever Anderson) and her little sister Yelena (Violet Mcgraw) being raised by Alexei Shostakov (David Harbour) and Melina Vostokoff (Rachel Weisz). In case those proudly Russian names aren't already a tip-off, it's quickly revealed that their idyllic Ohio family life is just a cover. (Shades of TV'S The Americans.) Authorities arrive, guns a-blazing, and the family makes a hair-raising escape to Cuba, backed by a weirdly slowed-down version of Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit.
(Also, I thought this overused musical trick was confined to trailers and maybe the odd horror movie, but here it is in the main body of a summer blockbuster, and the sooner it's retired, the better.)
Cut to 21 years later, so 2016. Black Widow is on the run after the band — sorry, The Avengers — broke up at the end of Civil War. Also in hiding is Yelena (Florence Pugh), formerly a puppet/assassin of the evil General Dreykov; Ray Winstone, doing a Russian version of his usual Cockney accent. Now she's in possession of a super-serum antidote to Dreykov's mind-control techniques.
The sisters meet up in Budapest, where they have one of those fight-conversations in which, thank heavens, no one gets killed. And as clichéd as THAT is, it must be said that the scenes featuring Johansson and Pugh together are easily the most enjoyable moments in this overly long (two and a quarter hours!) film.
Whether fighting one another, fighting together or just talking clothes — Yelena has a vest with lots of pockets that Natasha would clearly love to borrow — the two actors nail the complicated combination of love, trust and jealousy that anchors so many sibling relationships.
Pugh is particularly good at putting down what she sees as her sister's tendency to strike a pose when entering combat: “It does look like you think everyone's looking at you, like, all the time.”
But if the sisters' relationship is convoluted, that's nothing compared to when Mom and Pop reappear on the scene. Both Harbour and Weisz embody characters so full of their self-importance that they have no time for their offspring — but they're necessary allies if Natasha and Yelena are to track down Dreykov, who is alive and well and living in some sort of airborne Bond-villain lair, complete with an unbeatable hench-being named Taskmaster, who can mimic any fighting style, except perhaps passive resistance.
And before you roll your eyes at the cheesy 007 elements of Black Widow, know that director Cate Shortland, working from a screenplay by Eric Pearson (Thor: Ragnarok), has beaten you to it.
Witness the scene where Natasha relaxes by watching Moonraker on television, so much a fan that she can quote lines along with the movie.
There are some outrageous stunts in Black Widow of course, but they're nothing compared to the work that went into crafting craaazy Russian accents for everyone except Johansson, who had the good sense to use her natural voice — a sensuous cough-syrup purr, according to one smitten critic — from the get-go, 11 years ago.
I'm glad Black Widow finally got her stand-alone, though doing it after such latecomers as Ant-man, Doctor Strange and Black Panther must rankle. Also, a day late (plus obligatory pandemic delays) and a dollar short isn't exactly the best release strategy. Finally, I wish the story felt like it had more traction, more sense of purpose, rather than being a side-story shoehorned in between more powerful tales. The obligatory mid-credit scene — so easy to find when you're streaming at home! — reminds us of Black Widow's death, and introduces a character you've seen before, with an idea you haven't. Better late than never? I mean, I guess, if you had to choose.