It's refreshing these days to find a thriller with so much plot, although this one is a bit too complex for its own good, even if it does just enough to keep you engrossed to the end. The admirable Debra Winger has a tough time coping with the difficult role of the workaholic Department of Justice investigator, whose sharp brain detects a link between the seemingly natural deaths of wealthy middle-aged men. No one is prepared to follow up her suspicions, but, naturally, she's right or we wouldn't have a film. Doing the matching, catching and dispatching is the picture's other female star, Theresa Russell, an enigmatic Gloria Grahame type and the black widow of the title. Like the spider, you see, she mates and she kills. The investigator's Achilles heel is that she envies her suspect's lifestyle, and even becomes involved with one of the husbands-to-be. These weaknesses make the character oddly dislikeable. We can never quite take to her, any more than viewers may take to a film which asks them to do so much of the spadework themselves.

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