The story of the Richthofen case caused a stir in Brazil and characterized the country by the brutality and coldness of those involved in the deaths of Manfred Albert von Richthofen and Marísia von Richthofen. After two films that were actually the same but showed different perspectives on the story, the final part comes to streaming, The Girl Who Killed Her Parents: The Confession.
The film clearly follows on from the success of its predecessors, but this time it focuses entirely on the days after the murder. Considering that a little over 8 days pass between the crime and the confession, the film can be quite tense, but it really shows that the coldness and even stupidity of those involved were the reason why they were captured so quickly.
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The girl who didn’t care
The Girl Who Killed Her Parents: The Confession appears to be tasked with clearly showing that Suzane von Richthofen was a monster when she helped kill her parents. Already from the first scenes showing the crime and the attempts of those involved to falsify and hide evidence, one can see that the Cravinhos brothers, again played by Leonardo Bittencourt and Allan Souza Lima, are afraid and showing signs of showing remorse for crimes that Suzane does not.
Although the film portrays the brothers as criminals, they are aware of the seriousness of the facts, while Suzane behaves in a way that is completely unrealistic, especially for someone who would like to hide her involvement in a heinous crime.
Suzane tries to comfort her brother at the funeral of the parents he killed (Image: Reproduction/Amazon) Continued after advertising
As the film progresses this becomes increasingly clear, even though Daniel also shows signs of psychopathy, Carla Diaz’s performance as Suzane shows a person who is truly there for nothing. She once hosts a party at the same house where her parents were murdered, less than a week after the incident.
It was precisely these attitudes, coupled with a very weak story and poorly placed clues, that led the police to suspect from the outset that someone close to the von Richthofen family was responsible for the crimes.
An investigation that didn’t need to be investigated so intensively
Since it is a film that is supposed to show the investigation of the case, The Girl Who Killed Her Parents: The Confession The problem is that everything happened so quickly that there is no trace of tension in the story.
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Bárbara Colen in “The Girl Who Killed Her Parents The Confession” (Reproduction/Amazon)
Although it is a wellknown case that has been discussed for the past 20 years, there is no new fact to be covered in the film other than a reenactment of the events of that week, which ended with two deaths and three arrests.
There’s no twist, no “we’ve got these guys” moment, nothing. The police simply had to keep working and watch as Suzane and the Cravinhos fell into conflict within a week.
This confession appears only due to the fact that the three had simply planned a crime so much, but when committing it they did everything so randomly that it made the police’s job much easier.
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Shows a monster
We come back to the fact that The Girl Who Killed Her Parents: The Confession It’s basically an hour and a half of Suzane von Richthofen being a monster. This is not a judgment on the person she is today, who has served her sentence and is currently continuing her life in freedom and serving the remainder of her sentence.
Daniel and Suzane at Richthofens’ funeral (Image: Reproduction/Amazon)
During this time period, Suzane’s characterization comes close to the psychopathic girl stereotype. While the film shows the fragility of the Cravinhos brothers, especially Christian, there is virtually no moment when Suzane shows any kind of genuine emotion. In one scene, after the entire plan is already known, she tries to talk to her brother Andreas about the incident.
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It’s a scene meant to show that she cares about someone other than herself. That seems to have been the idea, but after 90 minutes of being cold and calculating, it’s hard to believe what comes of it.
You won’t win any prizes
That brings us to the cast of the film itself. It includes names like Bárbara Colen (Nightjar) and Che Moais (Walk in faith), who do a good job, but when we get to the main trio, we have one good job and two that are well below average.
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Allan Souza Lima as Christian Cravinhos in “The Girl Who Killed Her Parents The Confession” (Reproduction/Amazon)
While Allan Souza Lima delivers good scenes, especially when the police are on the trail of the perpetrators, Leonardo Bittencourt and Carla Diaz appear in scenes that seem like a school play.
There’s a particular scene where they’re on the phone trying to falsify evidence because they suspect they’re being wiretapped. The dialogue is poor, the way they talk to each other is unconvincing, and it feels more like what you’d expect from high school students in a school production rather than two professional actors.
There are even scenes where they manage to deliver a bit more, but it’s all so uneven that the bad parts end up overpowering the good.
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Did there have to be another film?
As a film, The Girl Who Killed Her Parents: The Confession adds virtually nothing to what everyone already knew about the case that shocked the country in 2002. The impression remains that this film seems to convey the feeling that Suzane was almost a victim throughout the story, as the first two films seem to show that no, that she was responsible and perhaps even more to blame for everything carried what happened.
It’s not a particularly pleasant film to watch, and if you’re interested in learning more about the story, there are documentaries and reports that cover it in a much more efficient way.