A Widow’s Game Review: Twists, Trauma & a Ticking Clock

A Widow’s Game Review: When a man is found with several stab wounds, the suspicion falls on the grieving widow. As the investigation goes on, the detectives make more and more shocking discoveries that change everything that they could have ever expected.

A Widow’s Game Review

In A Widow’s Game, a young woman is investigated when her husband dies under mysterious circumstances. This is supposed to be a thriller, but the format of the film is rather confusing and somehow takes away from the mystery element. The film starts off with pretty sure that Maria, or Maje, has something to do with Arturo’s death. She’s an adulterer who somehow can’t stop herself from having multiple affairs with different men. You dislike her from the get-go and wonder whether she is suffering from some mental health issue, but the movie doesn’t specify.

We spend a lot of time understanding Maje’s motives and why she did what she did, but somehow don’t go too deep into it either. The entire premise is thrilling enough to make up for it, but somehow doesn’t have the impact that you’d expect. It’s more about following two criminals on the off chance that they will say something wrong to someone, but there’s hardly any mystery. As mentioned previously, the film is sure that Maje is the murderer; we just have to prove it in front of the court.

The interesting thing, thus, for me, was Maje’s motivations and her logic as well as Salvador’s. It’s interesting watching these two plan and execute a murder with so much ease; it’s also a little unnerving. Ivana Baquero is a fantastic Maje who plays her with disturbing finesse. You feel scared of this woman who doesn’t bat an eye before saying a terrible lie about someone around her. No one is safe interacting with her.

On the other hand, we have Tristán Ulloa as Salvador, who plays the pathetic and desperate character well. You feel somewhat bad for him, but you know he’s going through a midlife crisis. But as Eva puts it, people don’t usually start murdering their affair partner’s spouses in such scenarios – they get a tattoo. However, I think we don’t know a whole lot about Salvador and how he jumped to murder with very little pushback, although I did enjoy them showcasing his relationship with his mother; that says a lot.

Then we have Eva, whom we hardly know. Most of the police’s legwork is done thanks to the two idiot murderers talking about their handiwork on the phone. I feel like tapping their phone and them divulging everything takes away from the solving part of the riddle, but it was fine. I am yet to understand the point of showing that Eva’s child has some behavioural problems. It’s never addressed later on, and we forget about it completely. Don’t know why it was included.

Final Thoughts

I enjoyed watching A Widow’s Game, although I found myself a little confused with the documentary/fictional style of the storytelling. I felt like it clashed a bit and left to mystery in the middle. However, it’s the performances and the characters’ complexities that shine for me.

Also Read: A Widow’s Game Ending Explained: Who Killed Arturo? Are the Perpetrators Arrested?