Let's be realistic.

It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

Based on well-known true events, "Jugar a matar" is a remarkably well-directed TV-movie. Instead of filming it as an episode of any cop-themed TV-series (call it "CSI" or "El Comisario"), Isidro Ortiz has made an interesting work with framing and lighting, thus giving "Jugar a matar" a different and more cinematic air. Lucía Jiménez is quite convincing as a member of the CSI team investigating the case, and so is Andoni Gracia as her new boss. I really didn't buy the relationship between Jiménez's character and the cop in charge of the investigation, played by Juan Fernández. They had no chemistry whatsoever, and I don't find the necessity of inserting a love story in the crime investigation plot. Nevertheless, I found "Jugar a matar" really engaging, and very well made for a TV-movie.