“The Kitchen” is a very dark film. While espousing principles of female empowerment, these come at a violent cost. The movie has so much story to tell that there is little room for character development, and the picture suffers as a result.

Based on a series published by Vertigo Comics, an imprint of DC Comics, “The Kitchen” is set in Hell’s Kitchen in Manhattan in 1978. When the husbands of the leads, Kathy (Melissa McCarthy), Ruby (Tiffany Haddish), and Claire (Elizabeth Moss), go to prison after a failed robbery, the three woman are left to fend for themselves. Kathy in particular has two children to support.

The local mob gives each of them an envelope of too little money to meet their bills. When they complain, they are told that collections are down and ignored.

After Claire is assaulted while volunteering at her local church, the three women decide to take matters into their own hands. They discover that Little Jackie (Myk Watford) and his gang have been taking protection money but offering little in return.

So they go to the local businesses and offer to provide real protection. Of course the dilemma they face is where is the muscle to ensure this promise. They choose two extended-family members who are part of Little Jackie’s gang as their enforcement.

When Little Jackie finds out about this side venture of his underlings, he has them worked over as a lesson. They opt out of the arrangement with the women, who are left powerless.

Little Jackie decides to go after Claire in an alley when he is shot dead by Gabriel (Domhnall Gleason). Gabriel used to be part of the gang but left when things got hot for him and has returned now that Claire’s husband is in prison.

He now provides the muscle for the women and is quite effective. He shows them how to dismember a body in a bathtub for disposition in the river. He also instructs Claire in how to use firearms. Soon a romance has blossomed between these two.

The women decide to extend their territory to a Jewish neighborhood nearby. There is a building project going on and Kathy wants the jobs for union people in Hell’s Kitchen. This area already is being protected by the Italian mob in Brooklyn, who again seem to provide little service for the money they collect.

When there is reluctance to agree with the three, they cause enough trouble that the businessmen reconsider. There is one holdout, who later is murdered as a message.

One day the ladies are summoned to meet the head of the Italian mob in Brooklyn. They meet Alfonso Coretti (Bill Camp) and make an arrangement with him so that all benefit from the expansion of the Hell’s Kitchen operation into other areas of Manhattan.

The complication arises when it is discovered that the three husbands are scheduled for early release. How will they react to their wives’ new business operation? Things quickly escalate for the worse after they return.

My first thought after watching this film was who is the intended audience. Its violence is sure to turn off those who would like to see three women make something of themselves in 1978 New York City. It isn’t a buddy picture because the three leads are colleagues not friends. It certainly isn’t a date movie.

Ultimately it is a variation of a gangster movie. The story is well-plotted but there is so much of it that the movie has an episodic choppy feel as we go from one set of characters and situations to another. Montage scenes, sometimes of violence, are usually signaled by a musical song cue such as Heart’s “Barracuda” or Fleetwood Mac’s “The Chain.”

The acting, as you would expect from the cast, is top-notch. But the actors are not given enough to develop their characters fully. When the movie starts, Ruby is in a loveless marriage, an outsider as an African-American in Hell’s Kitchen. Claire is in an abusive relationship with her husband. Kathy seems to have a loving spouse and has two children who we presume that she cares about. But other than these facts, we know nothing about them.

Most of the time the characters have to say what they feel, rather than show it. The most-developed character is Claire, who comes into her own when she finds love with Gabriel and a craft, albeit violent, at which she excels. Their relationship is a highlight of the film. Moss does a good job with what she has, but has too little screen time to fully bring Claire to life as a person.

Gleason again shows his acting chops as Gabriel. A simple straight-forward person, he embodies the casual malice that his character exudes. Yet he is surprisingly tender in the romantic scenes with Claire.

McCarthy, although she has a family, rarely spends time in the movie with them. So we are told that she cares about them, but don’t have much evidence of that claim. She is forced to tell how she feels.

Haddish likewise is not given much with which to work. Her subtleties as an actor are remarkable, however. But again lack of screen time mitigates against full character development.

I did enjoy the scenes with Bill Camp as Coretti and his wife, Maria (Annabella Sciorra). Sciorra deftly portrays the frustration of being a mob wife and the limitations that brings.

The plot was engaging, and the movie is well-produced. The twists and cons were a highlight. The settings in Hell’s Kitchen are appropriately seamy. The musical soundtrack is excellent.

I nevertheless left the picture feeling unsatisfied. If you like crime films, this may be worth seeing. It is not quite gritty enough, however, to be a true noir, and its lack of character development is a drawback.

Three out of five stars.

Between 8th Ave. and the Hudson River, the Irish mafia runs 20 blocks of a tough New York City neighborhood known as Hell’s Kitchen. But for mob wives Kathy, Ruby and Claire, things are about to take a dramatic and radical turn. When the FBI sends their husbands to prison, the three women take business into their own hands by running the rackets and taking out the competition.

Starring: Melissa McCarthy, Tiffany Haddish, Elisabeth Moss, Domhnall Gleeson, Common, and Bill Camp
Director: Andrea Berloff
Screenplay: Andrea Berloff
Based on: “The Kitchen” by Ollie Masters, Ming Doyle (Vertigo Comics)