Stream It Or Skip It: ‘7 Women And A Murder’ On Netflix, An Italian Whodunnit Featuring ‘White Lotus’ Star Sabrina Impacciatore (2024)

7 Women And A Murder on Netflix is an Italian murder mystery that’s could probably also be called Buon Natale: A Knives Out Mystery. When a wealthy man is murdered on Christmas, the seven women in his life who have assembled at his home for the holiday, each one eccentric, each one with a plausible motive, try to determine which of them is the killer.

7 WOMEN AND A MURDER: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A car travels along an otherwise deserted stretch of snow-covered road. Inside is a woman smoking a cigarette and telling her driver that the destination, a large, isolated mansion, is just up ahead.

The Gist: It’s just before Christmas, and all of the family members of a wealthy (or is he??) Italian man named Marcello have come together at the family mansion. We never actually see Marcello alive, but we hear all about him as each of the women who live at the home, including his wife, Margherita (Margherita Buy), daughter Caterina (Benedetta Porcaroli), mother-in-law Rachele (Ornella Vanoni), sister-in-law Agostina (White Lotus star Sabrina Impacciatore), and maid, Maria (Luisa Ranieri), bring his other daughter, Susanna (Diana del Bufalo), who lives in Milan, up to speed on their lives. Soon though, Marcello’s body is found by his maid, Maria, having been stabbed to death in his bed.

The film seemingly takes place in the middle of the 20th century, though it’s never really specified, but judging from the styles of dress and cars, you know that this is an era before cell phones. The six women discover that their phone line has been cut and their car engine has been tampered with so they can’t reach the police. That’s when the seventh, Veronica (Micaela Ramazzotti), Marcello’s mistress, or so we are led to believe, arrives. She’s a friend of the family, though it’s an open secret that she has some kind of intimate relationship with Marcello, and she announces to the rest of the women that she’s just received a phone call to let her know he has been murdered. Her arrival irritates the rest of the women, mostly because she accuses them of killing Marcello, but she becomes trapped in the home as the storm outside rages, and makes herself at home with them anyway. As they point fingers, with the body still in the bed, clues appear, many of them seemingly planted, which make them all the more wary of who’s telling the truth.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of? Having just seen Glass Onion (as well as the original Knives Out), it’s hard not to compare this mystery to those, considering so much of the structure is similar. The comedic tone is similar too, though with far fewer winky nods to pop culture.

Our Take: Is 7 Women And A Murder the most exciting or most well-done murder mystery of its kind? No. There are definitely details throughout that render it a little corny, as when Auntie Agostina repeatedly faints any time something shocking happens. (In Glass Onion, this same trope was done much more satirically when Kate Hudson’s character would let out a bloodcurdling scream any time she was surprised. Here it just feels a little too corny.) But the movie, at 84 minutes long, moves at a very steady clip, new secrets are revealed at every turn. Over the course of the film, we learn that two of the women in the house were having affairs with Marcello, another was in love with him, still others were harboring his secrets, and we learn that one of his daughters was not his own.

Minor spoiler here: while the entire plot of the movie hinges on who the killer is, it turns out that things have never been quite what they seemed in the first place, so the twist ending falls a little flat if you’re looking for a big, dramatic reveal of a murderer who was hiding in plain sight. Still, there is a reveal and even if it’s not exactly what we’re looking for, it does manage to tie things up in a nice, tidy Christmas bow. Perhaps the biggest twist of all is the way it actually brings all of the women closer, though, in a charming little epilogue of sorts.

Sex and Skin: Not really, just a kiss between two of the suspects at one point.

Parting Shot: As the women watch Marcello’s body being carted off by the police, they discuss what they’re going to do with themselves now that their lives have all been upended by his death. After coming to a satisfying conclusion, Rachele says, “Shall we toast?”

Sleeper Star: As the aging and nearly immobile Rachele, Ornella Vanoni plays the role as the eccentric, usually-a-little-drunk mother-in-law perfectly. The role is over the top, a caricature of the unfiltered old woman archetype, but her line delivery is impeccable.

Our Call: There are moments during 7 Women And A Murder where it’s delightful and fun and fresh, the dialogue is witty and you definitely become invested in the whodunnit. And there are also moments that are contrived and dumb down the whole affair. (I remain on the fence about Sabrina Impacciatore in this role – she was so great as Valentina in The White Lotus, and here she plays a mousy, desperate spinster (the only thing more virgin in Italy, she says, is the olive oil), but her character is so unrealistic, with her fainting and a mid-movie makeover, that it’s distracting more than it is funny). But I’m also someone who’s always looking for something light and easy to watch that will get me in bed by 10PM, and this is that film. It’s not going to end up on any best of the year lists, but I can comfortably recommend that you STREAM IT if you’re looking for something fun to watch that will satiate you if you’re going through Knives Out or White Lotus withdrawal.

Liz Kocan is a pop culture writer living in Massachusetts. Her biggest claim to fame is the time she won on the game show Chain Reaction.