The Number One Film on Netflix Right Now Is Based-on-a-True-Story Trash

The top film on Netflix this past week — nearly doubling the views of the latest Fear Street installment — is a Spanish crime thriller called A Widow’s Game. On paper, it checks all the right boxes for both Netflix and me: murder-mystery, subtitles, and based on a true story. But dear God, it’s bad. I can’t for the life of me figure out why it’s so popular, unless it’s just the sex.

The film is based on the real-life case of the “Black Widow of Patraix,” María Jesús Moreno Cantó, known as Maje. The crime itself is certainly compelling, but you wouldn’t know it from the uninspired direction by Carlos Sedes or the disjointed screenplay by Ramón Campos, Gema R. Neira, and Jon de la Cuesta.

The story centers on the 2017 murder of Antonio Navarro Cerdán in a Valencia parking garage. His wife, Maje (played by Ivana Baquero), doesn’t behave like a grieving widow, raising the suspicions of the investigating detective, Eva (Carmen Machi). Had the film leaned into a traditional whodunit structure, it might’ve worked better. Instead, A Widow’s Game spoonfeeds the plot through a series of mostly boring flashbacks.

As Eva begins to dig, we learn about Maje’s affair with Daniel (Joel Sánchez), a handsome distraction who comforts her after Antonio’s death. He’s a composite character, representing the string of affairs Maje — then a hospital nurse — carried on during her marriage.

But the heart of the story is her relationship with Salva (Tristán Ulloa), another hospital employee. He’s portrayed as a sad-sack middle-aged man wildly punching above his weight. In real life, Salvador Rodrigo Lapiedra, a hospital janitor, was a more plausible match, but it’s easier to sell the story of an obsessed, love-blind killer when he looks like a hangdog corporate middle manager.

Spoilers: During their affair, Maje convinces Salva that her husband is abusive, that her marriage is unbearable, and that the only way they can be together is if Antonio disappears. She weaponizes his infatuation and manipulates him into committing the murder. And he’s pathetic enough to do it. But the murder itself is not even interesting: He lies in wait until the husband goes to his car, stabs him a few times, and flees.

The investigation doesn’t involve much actual detective work, unlike Netflix’s phenomenal Dept. Q series. Eva taps Maje’s phone, and Maje and Salva are dumb enough to practically confess over the wire. She gathers the evidence, arrests them, and initially, Salva takes the fall. But when he learns that Maje had yet another lover, he flips, testifies against her, and ends up with a lighter sentence, 17 years to her 22.

It all sounds more lurid and juicy than it plays onscreen. I’m not sure how you mess up a story this scandalous, but A Widow’s Game somehow does. It feels less like a taut crime thriller and more like a sleazy, late-night Cinemax flick (does that reference still land?). And it’s not even entertainingly trashy. It’s just trash.