How ‘Black Widow’ nailed its most moving scene – one where no action was involved
THERE are no pyrotechnic effects.
The dramatic tension does not revolve around swooping aircraft or lethal hand-to-hand combat.
Yet it is the most enlightening “Black Widow” scene – one that screenwriter Eric Pearson “had the most panic about.”
The filmmakers referred to it as simply “family dinner.” Just the four lead characters of “Black Widow” (out this weekend in theaters and streaming on Disney Plus) reunited in the relative quiet of a rural farmhouse – planning a mission yet reflecting on how they used to “play house” together as Russian spies in Ohio, like something out of TV’s “The Americans.”
“That was our biggest scene – a megillah,” Pearson says by phone.
In a Marvel movie packed with action, the dialogue-rich Family Dinner ran nine pages.
Every exchange, every emotional beat had to deepen the film while explaining the personal stakes for each of these psychologically warped characters.
About two decades earlier, the Russian agents Melina (Rachel Weisz) and Alexei (David Harbour) had posed as parents in America, raising their assigned young daughter figures: Natasha, who’s also the title superhero (Scarlett Johansson), and Yelena (Florence Pugh).
But the four fighters were split up for years by the film’s ultimate villain, with the daughters inhumanely trained to become killer spies.
Natasha escaped and joined Nick Fury’s S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Avengers – “Black Widow” is set between the events of “Captain America: Civil War” and “Avengers: Infinity War.” In the new film, she has returned to dismantle the Red Room operation that is still subjugating and brutalizing girls and young women.
Natasha and Yelena have sprung Alexei from prison and travelled to find the knowledgeable Melina, now on a remote farm with a swine named Alexei.
“Back together again,” the human Alexei says in a gruff singsong as the four sit around a rustic table, sizing up just who they are to each other when not playing assigned roles.
“Family construct was just a calculated ruse that only lasted three years,” says Melina, adding: “I don’t think we can use this term anymore, can we?” Natasha agrees.
“OK, reunion then, eh?” Alexei replies, and just like that, they launch into textured conversations that combine espionage intrigue with old patterns.
They may be a quartet of highly skilled assassins, but even feigned family dynamics are tough to shake: Alexei dwells on Dad jokes and his glory days as the hero Red Guardian; Melina is practical and knows much more than she reveals, yet still scolds Natasha for slouching; and each daughter acts out in her own way.
Family Dinner had to be “a collision of a lot of character conflicts and relationship conflicts – and a lot of escalation of character conflicts,” Pearson says.
Director Cate Shortland called for two days of rehearsal and included Pearson in the process: “As a writer, I got sat down at the family table.”
“The first day only increased my panic,” he says.
“This table of heavyweights” who “all come in with their ideas” that, if all were incorporated, would mean “the scene is 45 pages” – far, far too long.
Working quickly, Pearson got a night to rework the scene, trying to give every actor what they said they creatively wanted.
“We were down to the wire,” he says.
To save time, he was told to stand up and perform it for the actors.
Shortland says this style of creative collaboration is crucial to her process.
“We start off getting to know each other as actors and people – I share with them things from my life, and they share with me – so we can trust each other,” she says on a recent Zoom call.
Out of this trusting space came one particular exchange of dialogue that succinctly encapsulated where the four characters are coming from.
“Never family, eh?” says Alexei, speaking from the heart as a “simple man.”
“I think that for a couple deep undercover agents, I think we did pretty great as parents.” Melina affirms dispassionately: “We had our orders and we played our roles to perfection.”
Natasha does not want to get drawn into the emotional drama, replying: “Who cares? That wasn’t real.”
But then Yelena, the toughas-nails fighter, bares her soul: “Please don’t say that – it was real to me.” She escalates: “You were my real mother – the closest thing I ever had to one.
The best part of my life was fake, and none of you told me.”
To get to this place, “I think it’s like a delicate operation of excavating from the character what has gone unmined and what is scary to approach,” the director says.
“Then we’ll do that with a lot of laughter.”
One particularly funny moment comes as the expense of Alexei, who has gained weight since he last squeezed into his mothballed Red Guardian supersuit.
So not unlike the father in Pixar’s “The Incredibles,” he is determined to wear the outfit of his long-ago escapades – but the costume isn’t so cooperative.
Shortland “just put him in a tiny room and said, ‘Here you go – put it on,’ “Pearson says.
In the film, we see Harbour standing in his tighty-whities, trying to pull on the skintight Spandex.
“Finally he had to tap out and say, ‘I’m actually stuck.’ “
Harbour, though, loved this authentic approach.
“There’s some other movies where characters just tap their neck or something, and then the (suit) just appears – this nanotech or whatever,” he says during a video call.
The actor relives his costume change with a youthful glee: “Putting it on for the first time is like being a 5-year-old boy who gets to put on the coolest Halloween costume in the world – it’s like that’s the best feeling wearing one of those.”