Laura LaPlante is a wonderful writer, but if you've ever seen a British and American version of one of her stories, you know the British are superior.
I did not see the British "Widows" but I did see the American one from 2002, starring Mercedes Ruehl, Rose Perez, Brooke Shields, N'Bushe Wright, Colm Feore, and Jay O. Sanders. The DVD for the American version is shortened from 273 minutes to 168; the original seems to have been a TV series rather than a TV movie that went over several nights.
The story concerns four women whose husbands were killed during an art heist, tied in to the Gardner Museum robbery of 1990. None of those paintings have ever been found. One of them, The Concert, by Vermeer, is worth $300 million. The men were breaking into a gallery to steal the Vermeer, and their deaths were no accident, but murder. The women, led by Dolly (Ruehl) decide to finish stealing the painting and find out who killed their husbands.
The presence of several actors here, particularly Colm Feore, indicates the film was done in Canada.
The original series could not have been about the Gardner robbery, nor did it take place in Boston as this one does.
I enjoyed this film in part because of the acting by Ruehl and also Brooke Shields, though everyone did a good job. And it's always a pleasure to see Feore, an acclaimed stage actor in Canada. Also, it's a good story that draws you in, and knowing about the Gardner Museum heist, I liked that it was part of the plot.
I look forward to seeing the original.
