O Jogo da Viúva

Currently streaming on Netflix comes this true crime account of a woman, Ivana Baquero (the young girl from Pan's Labyrinth, all grown up!) whose husband is killed in a car park. Baquero is seen happily married to her new husband but behind the scenes the union happened after the hubby forgave her for her past sexual indiscretions but due to some psychological background we never get to identify, Baquero, who then begins seeing a co-worker, Tristan Ulloa, a doctor, sexually & when their lustful clutches get more passionate, Baquero convinces him to kill her hubby which the police, led by an intrepid detective, Carmen Machi, suspect w/some well-placed phone taps, the dominoes sure do fall. What keeps this film in the winners' circle is the weird time signature it adopts to tell the tale, we spend about 40 minutes on the crime & the incipient investigation while the remaining time spreads the wedding & the lead up to the murder out which begs the question why. Is it because the crime is so well known in Spain, the filmmakers decided to try something different? The verdict, it doesn't work even though Baquero gives it her all which is a shame.

I am Spaniard so I have watched this one without subtitles, what is a plus.

So, If you love Spanish series like "El cuerpo en llamas", A window's game is for you. The movie is amazingly real as cruel the case it is.

First, the case is sad and at the same time makes you think about how cruel a woman can be.

Second, cast is superb. Great acting from Tristan Ulloa and Carmen Machi. Ivana Baquero is great too.

Last, the settings and production are superb. Pretty close to reality. Around 95% of the movie happened. Also the scenarios are real too.

So, overall an ugly crime, but a great movie. I mean, if you love true crime, this one is for you.

Portraying a true crime on screen is always a dangerous game: either you build an unsustainable-and perhaps insensitive-mystery, or you opt for a cold, factual retelling that too often feels predictable. A Widow's Game doesn't hide its cards: from the very first move, we know who died (the husband), who survived (the widow), and who most likely wielded the knife. The mystery, therefore, isn't the point. Instead, the film is a sequence of well-worn moves, leaving the viewer to decide whether they want to watch the pieces fall or simply confirm that, yes, everything collapsed exactly as expected.

And collapse it did. The protagonist, Maje-practically a black widow lifted from a rushed femme fatale handbook-parades through the story with subtle ambition and calculated hunger, manipulating men like someone changing outfits. The script occasionally seems interested in exploring her erotic, lethal edge, but it quickly retreats to the safety of factual reconstruction: she cheated, she seduced, she planned, she used. There's no room for deep psychological complexity here, just the linear trajectory of a woman who turned desire and survival into a sharpened weapon. Was there a lack of venom? Perhaps. A lack of the hesitation that humanizes-or corrupts-such characters? Undoubtedly.

The film's structure relies on that classic device of starting with the investigation-led by Eva, a detective as tough as she is sharp-only to shuffle between past and present, back and forth, adding no real layers, just reiterating what we already suspect. The narrative is preoccupied with dissecting who was manipulated, who hid what, who stumbled first. Salva, the manipulated man, is one of those who falls headfirst into the widow's web, convinced he can pull a few strings himself. In the end, of course, he's tangled, suffocated, and-ironically-still believing he can outmaneuver the woman who played him.

This double game-he thinks he's manipulating, but she's always two steps ahead-might be the film's only truly compelling dynamic. Not because it's novel, but because of the morbid pleasure in watching the ruin of a man deluded enough to think he could master someone who plays by her own rules. It's in this clash of wills, this push-and-pull of power, that the film briefly comes alive. And yet, when the house of cards finally collapses, the script seems more interested in documenting the fall than in hinting at its cracks. There's no perverse thrill, no mounting suspense-just the inevitable crash, filmed competently but without fire.

In the end, A Widow's Game is more report than reinvention, more chronicle than tragedy. It's efficient, even good-but it lacks the kind of risk that Maje herself embodies and that the film, ironically, refuses to take. What lingers is this feeling: the game was played, the house fell, the pieces scattered-but for the audience, the match ended long before checkmate.

Netflix offers us a surprising offering, based on true events that shook Spain and Europe in 2017, based on Patraix's Black Widow. Directed by Carlos Sedes and starring Ivana Baquero, Carmen Machi, and Tristán Ulloa.

The film offers a powerful true crime thriller that captivates you as we learn about the brutality of the events and the underlying story of its two main perpetrators. The film is further enhanced by the excellent script and the decision to tell us from the perspective of its three protagonists, concluding with the unfolding of the events that saddened all of Spain in 2017.

Carlos Sedes's direction offers no grand extravaganzas, but it does employ an absolute seriousness when confronting the stories and the rawness of his characters. The director's work, rendered with a documentary essence, helps us truly capture the crime in its entirety, and we want to confront the events with complete unease and uncertainty. His leading trio plays an essential role in making everything work smoothly. Machi, Baquero, and Ulloa give their all to their characters, which means we see the true protagonists of reality in the skin of their cast.

Its two-hour running time, which may seem a bit long, really flies by once we're completely hooked on the events and the way it tells us everything behind the horrendous crime. The use of sound and narration are fundamental pillars that make Netflix's offering a pleasant and well-chosen pastime. The streaming platform surprises with a very interesting film that manages to pique our interest thanks to all its virtues and a story that is effective in every aspect, and whose director knows how to handle everything with the necessary caution, so that the necessary fiction never interferes with the reality of a brutal crime.

One of Netflix's pleasant surprises this 2025.

Maje plots the murder of her husband; she gets an older colleague of hers to fall for her and then pressures him into murdering her husband.

Based on real-life events, this is a story that rocked Spain a few years back. A more accurate translation, and perhaps a more fitting title, would have been 'Black Widow,' a title that would probably have been a more apt name.

Every now and then, Netflix drops something a little different and surprising; this was both of those things. It's a fascinating story-it's scandalous, shocking, and almost hard to believe. There's something almost old-fashioned about it: a woman brainwashing an older man into murdering her husband; it's like the plot of a stage play.

I liked the way it was presented; we're given all the facts; the only ones who aren't in possession of the pieces of the puzzle are the killers. It worked well.

Ivana Baquero is very good as the manipulative widow; I thought Carmen Machi was great as Eva.

7/10.