Elize: Shadows of a Woman Review
Director: Felipe Vellasco
Date Created: 2026-07-22 20:23
3.5
Elize: Shadows of a Woman Review: Directed by Felipe Vellasco and written by Raphael Montes and Mariana Torres, Elize: Sombras de uma Mulher is Netflix’s latest Brazilian crime docudrama based on one of the country’s most infamous real-life murder cases. Running for 1 hour and 33 minutes, the film stars Lorena Comparato as Elize Matsunaga and Henrique Kimura as Marcos Matsunaga, alongside Denise Weinberg, Julia Konrad, Miwa Yanagizawa, Gustavo Falcão, and others.
Elize: Shadows of a Woman Review
Netflix film Elize: Shadows of a Woman revolves around Elize Matsunaga, who marries a successful businessman named Marcos in what at first looks like a happily ever after love story but eventually turns out to be a nightmare. The plot is told in scattered pieces which flash back and forth between the consequences of the murder and some of the highlights from their love life. It tries to explore what could drive a woman to commit such a horrifying act. It is not just about the murder; most of the movie explores her emotional trauma and manipulative behaviour.
Netflix’s Elize: Shadows of a Woman is not so much focused on shocking its viewers through grotesque depiction as on giving a portrayal of unsettling psychology. While its success may be doubted, I personally value the effort to put me in the uncomfortable position of a viewer.
The greatest aspect of the movie is its eerie ambience, which comes not from any explicit acts of violence but from the constant reminder that the characters who populate the screen were real people in their own time. Each conversation between Elize and Marcos takes on an ominous tone, knowing what will happen to all of them later on.
What interested me was the fact that in the Elize: Shadows of a Woman movie, Marcos is not depicted as a purely evil character while Elize is not portrayed as the perfect victim deserving sympathy. Rather, the picture describes a marriage that collapses due to lies and manipulation on both sides. Marcos keeps promising Elize an ideal future, which, however, becomes less significant once she is included in his life of prosperity. The gap between the two characters is becoming bigger, and the script quite adequately illustrates how isolated Elize is despite her prosperous life from the outside.
On the other hand, I also enjoyed the fact that the Brazilian crime docudrama Elize: Shadows of a Woman does not justify Elize’s behaviour only based on the traumatic past. It is understandable that the girl has been through a lot of things in the past and has been abused as a child, and that explains her inability to trust others.
However, at the same time, it does not deprive her of free will either. At some points, Elize’s behaviour starts to seem very strange even when there is no complete failure of the marriage yet. The most vivid example of this kind would be the hunting scene. It is quite an interesting episode since nothing really happens; however, the facial expressions of Lorena Comparato clearly indicate that something weird is going on inside Elize.
Lorena Comparato essentially holds the movie up alone, and I believe that the film wouldn’t have worked as well without her performance. She is mostly silent and speaks in silences rather than in words for most of the film. Whether she wants to make her way in Marcos’ world of wealth and riches, whether she processes a betrayal, or simply hopes that things between the two will improve, she makes us feel the emotional complexities of Elize. While I did not support her at all, I could not detach myself from her pain.
Henrique Kimura should be thanked for that as well since Marcos is such a charming character that we can easily comprehend the reasons behind Elize’s attraction towards him. With the development of the story, however, this charming personality gradually turns out to be a very manipulative one. The most cruel statements become even more painful to hear from someone who was supposed to love her unconditionally. They hardly ever argue in a way that involves yelling at each other; rather, it happens in quiet and emotional conflicts.
What started getting to me about the Elize: Shadows of a Woman film is the amount of material that it is trying to pack into an extremely short run-time. The relationship covers many years of their lives; however, at times, very significant events in the story occur way too fast so that they do not have the emotional weight that they should have. Pregnancy, paranoia, infidelities of Marcos and the instability of Elize – everything occurs rather fast and does not give the time to fully experience emotions.
Also, the film seemed to waver at times as to precisely what kind of film it wanted to be. Is it a character psychological study? Or is it a true crime story? Or maybe an exploration of violence and privilege? The movie deals with all of those things and yet never commits wholeheartedly to any one of them. Because of that, at times it comes across as a blend of biography and thriller. And while that is not a bad approach by any means, it still left me desiring something more concrete.
What I did like about the film is the way it does not make the murder entertaining. Despite knowing what the end would be like, it focuses more on how the character’s emotions spiral down before he commits the crime. It adds to the heavy emotions of the film, despite the fact that there could have been some emphasis on the process after the murder.
Netflix Elize: Shadows of a Woman Review: Summing Up
Overall, Elize: Shadows of a Woman makes for a decent docudrama which works more on account of its acting and eerie mood than the narrative itself. This is not the definitive telling of this case, nor is there much information revealed for those who already know about the true story behind it. Yet as an insight into a profoundly disturbed woman trapped within a poisonous relationship, I found it interesting enough to keep watching. What adds to its disturbing nature is the constant reminder that what we see is based on actual events, despite some aspects that look like fictional interpretations.
