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THE UNKNOWN WOMAN
Written & Directed by Giuseppe Tornatore
Produced by Laura Fattori
Director of Photography, Fabio Zamarion
Edited by Massimo Quaglia
Music by Ennio Morricone
Released by Outsider Pictures
Italian with English subtitles
Italy. 118 mins. Not Rated
With Xenia Rappoport, Michele Placido, Claudia Gerini, Pierfrancesco Favino & Clara Dossena

There’s no beating around the bush. No matter how many films Italian director Giuseppe Tornatore makes, his bittersweet Cinema Paradiso will remain his masterpiece. For better or worse, the heartwarming film is just too good.

From its very first scene, Tornatore proves with his latest endeavor that he doesn’t intend to re-create the Paradiso magic, let alone ride the wave of a 19-year-old tour de force. Pretty much its antithesis – the evil twin lurking in the shadows – The Unknown Woman is a modern day mystery/thriller with deliciously noirish undertones. A darker, more sinister kind of magic is at work here.

When we first meet Ukrainian immigrant Irena (Xenia Rappoport), she has a suspicious amount of cash with her, and takes an expensive flat across a luxury apartment building. From her window, she looks directly into the affluent Adacher household. Her obsessive and severely questionable attempts to work in their apartment building – it seems she’ll stop at nothing to do so – finally land her a job as the family’s personal housekeeper and nanny to their four-year-old adopted daughter Thea.

Played remarkably well by little Clara Dossena, Thea has a unique condition in which even the simplest defense mechanism lies dormant. Without the instinct to put out her hands when she falls, she’s constantly covered in bruises, and, rather than babying her every time it happens, Irena is the only one willing to toughen her up – though, again, using very questionable means. The two develop a strong relationship (Thea’s parents are too busy running the family’s jewelry business), but disturbing flashbacks of Irena’s past – at first only shocking glimpses and quick cuts – become more and more intrusive and undermine any sentimentality in the film as Irena’s connection to the Adachers catches up with them all. When she comes home to a trashed apartment, and is brutally beaten in an alley by two men dressed as Santa Claus, it becomes clear that she hasn’t kept the best of company.

The film is beautifully photographed by Fabio Zamarion, who makes a garbage dump look poetic, but many of the lurid flashbacks are over the top and unnecessary. They seem to be there more for shock value than anything else, and add little to Irena’s ambiguous character. It’s difficult to say whether she is a sympathetic character or not – Xenia Rappoport does an excellent job of straddling the line – but the fact remains that many of her actions are shady and difficult to justify, especially those involving Thea.

It’s a harrowing story of violence, sex, and obsession, and Tornatore refuses the tainted-but-truly-good heroine to guide us through it. You’re left to fend for yourself, and like a deer caught in the headlights, you can’t help but watch the fast-paced puzzle take shape. Even if you’re not sure you want to see the final, sordid picture. B. Bastron
June 10, 2008