The Kitchen 2019
Initial release: August 8, 2019 (Singapore)
Box office: 15.9 million USD
Budget: 38 million USD
The Kitchen is a 2019 American crime film written and directed by Andrea Berloff in her directorial debut. It is based on the DC/Vertigo Comics limited series of the same name by Ollie Masters and Ming Doyle. The film stars an ensemble cast, led by Melissa McCarthy, Tiffany Haddish, and Elisabeth Moss as the wives of Irish mobsters, who take over organized crime operations in New York's Hell's Kitchen in the late 1970s, after the FBI arrests their husbands. The film also features Domhnall Gleeson, James Badge Dale, Brian d'Arcy James, Jeremy Bobb, Margo Martindale, Common, and Bill Camp in supporting roles.
Produced by New Line Cinema, Bron Creative, and Michael De Luca Productions, the film was theatrically released in the United States on August 9, 2019, by Warner Bros. Pictures. It received mostly negative reviews from critics, who criticized the convoluted plot, and grossed $16 million against its $38 million budget, making the film a box-office bomb.
In crime-ridden Hell's Kitchen in 1978, three women are married to members of the Irish mob. Kathy is married to the reluctant but kind Jimmy; Ruby is married to Kevin, the son of Helen and heir to the mob empire; Claire is married to Rob, who frequently abuses her. Helen constantly berates Ruby, resentful that her son has married a Black woman. Ruby, who is the product of a brutal and dehumanizing mother, bitterly swallows her resentment since Kevin never backs her up. Only Kathy has a happy home life, including 2 children and loving parents, who wish their daughter was not married to a mobster.
One night, the men are busted in the middle of a robbery by FBI agents and sentenced to three years in prison. Kevin's confederate, Little Jackie, becomes head of the mob and tells the wives they'll be taken care of, but the money isn't enough for them to survive. Claire is attacked and sent to the hospital by a mugger and vows that she will never let a man hit her again. When the women discover that the local businesses paying protection fees are not happy under Little Jackie, they begin collecting protection fees and helping out the neighborhood, making a profit and becoming respected in the community.
When Jackie finds out, he threatens to kill all three women, but catches Claire in an alley and tries to rape her. He is killed in the act by Gabriel O'Malley, a former Irish mob enforcer called in by Ruby. While Kathy and Ruby are nauseated, Claire watches dispassionately as Gabriel, a dead-eyed Vietnam vet, dismembers Jackie's body in a bathtub. With Jackie out of the way and Gabriel as their enforcer, the women begin running the neighborhood, while Gabriel trains Claire to be a killer. It's the first tender relationship Claire has ever had and she becomes Gabriel's enthusiastic partner and lover.
To expand their power, the women make overtures to a nearby Hasidic jewelers' group, in hopes of securing jobs for Irish workers on upcoming building projects. The jewelers resist until Claire makes her first hit, killing the most vocal opponent. Soon Irish laborers, including Kathy's father, have steady employment again and the women solidify their control of the Kitchen.
The women eventually are ordered to meet with Alfonso Coretti, the head of the Italian mafia. Recognizing talent, he suggests they make a deal and tells them he's arranged for their husbands to be released from prison early. Knowing that this will threaten the women's power, Coretti says he'll support them and give them more of the city to control. The women decide to take the deal but Kathy is uneasy that Ruby is dominating the negotiations without consulting her. Ruby kills her cruel mother-in-law by pushing her down a flight of stairs. When their husbands get out of prison, Kevin thinks he has inherited control of the gang, Jimmy pressures Kathy for them to leave their life of crime, and Rob is furious that Claire has left him for Gabriel. None of the men realize that the women enjoy wielding power and have no intention of returning to their old life. When Rob tracks Claire down, she kills him and disposes of his body as Gabriel taught her. After Rob's murder, Coretti tells the women that a contract has been placed on them by members of their own gang. Ruby offers more money for the mafia to kill Kevin and three other gangsters, including Jimmy. Kathy is outraged and demands that her husband and Colin, a teenage member of the gang, be spared. The hit goes through, but Claire is shot and dies in Gabriel's arms when Colin comes back to exact revenge. Gabriel blames Kathy for letting Colin live long enough to kill his lover and gives his full allegiance to Ruby.
After Claire's funeral, Ruby reveals to Kathy that she has been in league with a corrupt FBI agent who has been plotting with her for years. Ruby explains that she set up their husbands to be caught on the night of the robbery so that she could take over. She needed an Irish woman like Kathy to help her make inroads into Hell's Kitchen but now Ruby plans to make moves into Harlem with her FBI partner. Kathy later finds that Jimmy has set up a meeting with Coretti and taken their children to his house. Coretti tells Kathy that Jimmy meant to betray her because he was unhappy about not having a place in the business. Coldly furious that Jimmy has endangered their children, she leaves, allowing Coretti to kill Jimmy. Kathy's father tells her he understands why she abandoned Jimmy to protect her children but she lets him know it was for herself, so that she could finally feel safe in the dangerous world men have made.
Ruby asks Kathy to meet to work out their differences and she finds that Ruby and Gabriel are planning to kill her. But Kathy has brought all of the local Irishmen as backup and the stand-off is broken when she tells Gabriel that she loved Claire too. Gabriel admits he only got back into the life because of Claire, and he leaves. Kathy tells Ruby that the only way the two of them will survive is if they work together, so the women reconcile, with plans to take on Uptown next.
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