Anti-Climax Boss: Jatemme looks like he's gonna continue to be a major threat after stealing all of the widows' score. This is then immediately undone when they kill him in a car accident with him not even being able to put up a fight for the unceremonious exit.
Complete Monster: Jatemme Manning, the top enforcer for his brother's criminal organization, is a terrifying sociopath who approaches violence and murder with a laid-back serenity and goes out of his way to make his victims suffer. After two of his men failed to prevent Harry Rawlings from stealing his brother's money, Jatemme forces them to recite the rap they were found singing. First staring them down before briefly pretending to like it, he finally shoots the singer mid-verse, orders the beat boxer to run, then shoots him too after he makes it only a couple steps. Later on, he tortures a handicapped man for information by repeatedly stabbing him in the shoulder and legs to see where he can and can't feel pain, and has his men beat the "simple" Bash Babiak to death while he calmly watches football. At the end of the movie, he betrays the widows and tries to steal their entire haul, leaving them behind for the cops to arrest.
Critical Dissonance: The film was lauded by critics, with a 91% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, but was not warmly received by audiences, earning a mediocre 62% rating and failing at the box office.
Diagnosed by the Audience: Bash is referred to as "simple". He seems to forget things very easily, he speaks very carefully and numerous pill bottles are seen at his apartment. It's implied he might have some kind of brain damage from his career playing football.
Alice has been frequently mentioned in reviews to be one of the film's highlights.
Daniel Kaluuya as Jatemme, for his utterly chilling villain performance, miles away from his Oscar-nominated work in Get Out (2017).
Funny Moments: Despite the film's grim tone, it's not without a few humorous bits.
Alice is given the job to buy guns.
Veronica: Three Glocks, ammo too. No more than $2,000. Alice: From where? Veronica: This is America.
When Alice goes to buy guns, she has to convince another woman to help her out. When the woman shows hesitance, her daughter chimes in with: "Mom, you always say, 'a gun is a girl's best friend'".
During the heist, Veronica attempts to enter the code she was given, but she fails twice. It's not until she realizes that she was holding the note with the code upside down that she gets it right.
Moral Event Horizon: Harry Rawlings has two potential contenders for when he crossed the line. The first is when he arranged for the murder of his entire crew so he could fake his own death and start a new life for himself. The second is when he tries to shoot Veronica, his own wife, whom claims to have cared about just so he could steal the heist money for himself.
Narrowed It Down to the Guy I Recognize: The viewer can assume that Harry didn't actually die in the beginning of the film and will appear later on because they wouldn't have hired an actor as famous as Liam Neeson to play such a minor role.
When Harry reappears, he shows no qualms with grabbing Veronica, throwing her to the ground, and pulling a gun on her. It's a far cry from the flashbacks, where he appears to be her loving husband.
One-Scene Wonder: Agnieska, Alice's emotionally abusive mother. She has just one scene but she is suitably creepy.
Signature Scene: The most frequently shared scene is the one where Jatemme punishes two of his men for losing his money by forcing them to rap and then killing them halfway through it, often cited as a high example of Daniel Kaluuya’s acting skills.
Spiritual Successor: To Set It Offnote Minus the Downer Ending, which shared a similar premise about four women turning to bank robbery after a series of indirect but related circumstances leads them onto that path.
Squick: Veronica blackmails Ken — the CEO of the Mulligans' security company — with lewd photos of him having sex with his niece.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Amanda is in essentially one scene, has nothing to do, and very little about her character is clarified as she functions mostly as a Satellite Love Interest for Harry, in spite of the rich dramatic potential of a traitorous widow who is actually sleeping with Veronica's husband. She plays no active role in the plot and it's never clarified what happened to her, although she's played by Carrie Coon, who also played Margo in Gone Girl. Word of God is his original cut was three hours, so she possibly would have had more scenes.
Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: The dark and grim tone of the film along with several unlikeable characters? It’s understandable why the film didn’t receive the most favorable reviews from audiences despite its strong cast and great acting.
