La viuda negra

I don't get the rave reviews. It's an ok show to watch while doing something else. However I watched it with full undivided attention. Honestly it's a tad boring. At the end I was like ok that's it? Ok so we are done now? Ok cool.

This is based on a true story but it's a story that's been told a thousand times. I kept waiting for some twist or turn or excitement but nope. Just your regular run of the mill crime. I wouldn't even expect this to be a main plot point in a soap opera. This doesn't bring any intrigue or thrills. Honestly a mediocre true crime podcast is better than this movie.

PROS it's watchable and the acting is good and everyone seemed like real people. This is a breath of fresh air from Hollywood where everyone is great looking and is overly dramatic. CONS you find out pretty early on that the widow is a lying trash person. And soon after you find out everything else. The rest is just watching cops do their job. And it's not thrilling. It's just like ok welp i hope they wrap this up soon cuz I've got bed.

EXTREMELY forgettable, but a decent background movie to have on that doesn't require a lot of attention. Honestly a regular Law and Order SVU episode is leaps and bounds better than this movie. Actually they've showed this plot on THAT show a hundred times but only better.

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.

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.

What would constitute a man going through a ' mid life crisis' to commit a murder for a much younger female who he's clearly besotted with? This went through my mind as a flaw to the story but then I remembered it was based on a true life crime in Spain.

It kept us guessing with different view points from each of the would be male suitors esp the gullible male nurse!! Haha!.

I enjoyed the amorally of the lead female because I couldn't wait for her to be caught and put on trial.

My only gripe was I wanted to see more of the breakdown of the relationship between Artimus and his conniving wife.

A solid, decent Netflix thriller.

As "A Widow's Game" (2025 release from Spain; original title "La viuda negra" or "The black widow"; 122 min.) opens, we are reminded that this is "based on true events". It is August 6, 2017" and in a small city south of Valencia, a man's body is discovered, brutally stabbed to death. Eva, a police officer, is assigned to lead the investigation. It's not long before the surviving widow, Maje, is a suspect, even though she has an alibi. At this point we are a good 10 minutes into the movie.

Couple of comments: let me state upfront that I had never heard of these facts before. It doesn't take long to get a sense of how this might play out. The movie is brought in 3 chapters, from the perspectives of Eva, Maje and Salve, the latter a possible love interest. Some bits of the chapters overlap on purpose, just to give the different perspectives on the same facts. I quite enjoyed it for what it was, nothing more nothing less. There isn't anything truly shocking or revealing. It a matter of watching these performances play out. The movie benefits a lot from the lead performance by Spanish actress Ivana Baquero (as Maje), always easy on the eye, and perfectly conveying the seduction games played by Maje. Last but not least, I have no idea why the English title of the movie was changed from "The Black Widow" to the bland "A Widow's Game".

"A Widow's Game" started streaming on Netflix some weeks ago, and I just caught it the other night. This movie is currently rated only 42% Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, which feels low to me. If you are in the mood for a foreign murder mystery drama, I'd readily suggest you check this out, and draw your own conclusion.