A Widow’s Game Review: A Stellar Cast Leads Carlos Sedes’ Erratic True-Crime Drama

Originally titled La viuda negra in Spain, A Widow’s Game is based on a shocking true-crime story about Maje, a 28-year-old woman who was charged with masterminding her husband’s — Antonio Navarro Cerdán — murder in Valencia, Spain. It took place on August 16, 2017, when Cerdán was ambushed in a parking garage by a man who stabbed him to death with a knife. The man in question was Maje’s secret lover, Salvador.

Such a story is ripe for a big-screen adaptation, but in this case, straight-to-Netflix with director Carlos Sedes calling the shots. Not to mention, a movie like this can be told in either way: a police procedural or telling the story mainly from the perspective of Maje. But Sedes isn’t interested in settling in just one angle but rather focusing on three perspectives, beginning with the lead police investigator Eva (Carmen Machi) before shifting to Maje (Ivana Baquero) and Maje’s lover, Salva (Tristán Ulloa).

In theory, this may help to flesh out each character, allowing us to see them through their point of view. But the execution tells a different story; we get to that later. In the meantime, A Widow’s Game is structured as the movie opens with the discovery of a dead man’s body in the parking garage, leading Eva and her team to start their police investigation.

Eva’s methodical approach in analysing every possible detail of the case suggested this has to do with the crime of passion and the body, which was later identified as Maje’s husband, who suspects the young widow might have something to do with his death. This is especially true after she finds out that Maje has been committing infidelities.

She even tapped Maje’s phone and eavesdropped on every one of her conversations to listen if there are anything suspicious. Carmen Machi’s restrained performance playing the veteran homicide detective speaks volumes in this movie, thanks to her nuanced acting. How I wish Sedes would stay focused on Eva’s thorough investigation, but as the movie progresses, he feels the need to shift his attention to Maje. This might work better if A Widow’s Game is made as a miniseries, but as a feature-length movie, it robs the intriguing aspect of Eva’s investigation in the first place.

The momentum flags once Maje enters the picture, and from here, we see everything from Maje’s marriage to her estranged husband and how she prefers to spend time with other guys, particularly Salva, where they work in the same hospital. We also learn Maje has been working hard day and night: two respective nursing jobs at a retirement home and a hospital. Her relationship with her husband is eventually sour, and long story short, she starts to manipulate everyone into thinking that her husband abuses her, leading to the meticulous planning of a murder that requires Salva’s help.

Somewhere in between, Sedes incorporates elements of an erotic drama as Maje is seen engaging in various sexual activities with different lovers. The sex, however, feels like an afterthought, and despite Ivana Baquero does what she can to play a manipulative young woman with a hidden agenda, most of Maje’s story lacks dramatic tension to keep me invested in the movie. It just meanders around with a largely protracted second act, making me wonder if Sedes could have done something by trimming the excess fat.

The movie then shifts to Salva’s perspective, and while Tristán Ulloa does a good job playing the conflicted conspiring partner-in-crime, his side of the story doesn’t do much to renew my interest in the movie. By the time Sedes approaches A Widow’s Game back to Eva all over again, the eventual payoff ends up with a disappointingly limp result for a supposedly shocking case of a premeditated murder at the hands of Maje, who was given the nickname as the Black Widow of Patraix.

A Widow’s Game is currently streaming on Netflix.