Three Widows Against the World

Three widows somehow manage to get nine tickets to a sold out gig in Hyrul Anuar overly silly comedy

“Everyone is dating an auntie. It’s trending.”

Rohayu (Normah Damanhuri), Midah (Khatijah Tan) and Ani (Raja Azura) are three widows living together in a small town community in Malaysia. Connected by their love of ballad singer Aiman Zalini (Norman Hakim), they want nothing more than to attend his final concert. With tickets too costly, they decide to team up with Midah’s hopeful son-in-law and lab assistant Fikri (Abbas Mahmood) to create and sell the ultimate vape flavour, catching the ire of local drug lords (on account of how addictive their vape is).

Three Widows Against the World is a movie that feels like it was written very quickly without much thought. There’s a frenetic energy to its storytelling that gives the impression of improvisational comedy. It’s kind of all over the place, with jokes being thrown at you faster than the actual story is, but there is a sense that everyone’s having fun making it.

The widows as a trio work nicely together, and have good chemistry, and their personalities naturally complement each other. While they’re not exactly a coven, they occupy similar roles. Midah is the crone, strict and stern, and Ani is the maiden of the group, insofar as a widow can be a maiden. Rohayu doesn’t fully fit into the role of the mother, being confirmed to not have children, but she does act like the no-nonsense mum of the village. In tried and true fashion their characters work well off each other, and while it’s nothing you haven’t seen before, they still make for an effective trio.

On a more important note: Is it funny? I certainly chuckled a fair amount, and even laughed properly on a couple of occasions. Anyone who knows me knows I’m a difficult person to make laugh, so it’s certainly passed the test for me. It’s funny enough. There are plenty of moments in the film that didn’t strike me as particularly funny, mind you, with some truly bizarre moments that are, if nothing else, pretty memorable. It’s those moments that are the most entertaining and the film is filled with odd moments, tonal shifts and cutaway gags, most of which seem to take the form of an old music video or a soapy melodrama. Those are scenes that threaten to get tiresome, but again, the movie seems to be having fun so who am I to tell it not to?

Is it worth watching? Well, it’s not terrible by any stretch of the imagination. It’s just not massively good either. Three Widows never feels like it pushes the boundaries it could have, nor are its characters the tough boss bitches they could have been. It’s a bit empty in terms of actual content, but its silliness and cast lead it through the end, even if its staying power is as passing as a vape cloud.

Verdict: Like the singer they so desperately want to see, I wasn’t really the right audience for Three Widows Against the World, but the right crowd will love it.

Overall entertainment: 6/10
Violence: 3/10
Sex: 1/10
Laughs: 5/10
Datin Martipah: Was actually right.
Final shot: Did I miss something? What happened?
Sponsors: Nescafe, clearly.

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Three Widows Against the World (2022)
Also known as: Tiga Janda Melawan Dunia
Malaysian

Director: Hyrul Anuar
Writers: Hyrul Anuar, Nazri Vovinski

CAST

Khatijah Tan – Midah
Normah Damanhuri – Rohayu
Raja Azura – Ani
Norman Hakim – Aiman Zalini
Rosnah Mat Aris – Datin Martipah
Ellyza Azizi – Ana
Abbas Mahmood – Fikri
Taqim Zaki – Don Daniel