MamaGravity good back-story, and good acting

ChanFamous I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

Tymon Sutton The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

Jenni Devyn Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

axapvov Tornatore is an excellent film-maker. Inheritor of italian melodrama masters, he has the touch, a total control over his films emotional power. He makes it look simple. So yes, I was tempted to give this a higher rating. Not too much, though. The thing is, Tornatore is one of those few directors able to turn almost anything into gold. There are ridiculous flasbacks all over, conveniently remembered just when they´re needed. That doesn´t feel like a well planned script, more like details he just forgot to include. He´s so quick, so confident, though, that in a few seconds it´s over and we´re on to the next thing, which makes it easily forgivable. This happens all the time. Too many events feel like improvised writing, like the street beating half way through, what was up with that? Mystery is achieved by not giving any information at all, misleading the audience about the main character´s intentions right until the end, where it´s all explained in a rushed way. To me that´s too little too late. For over an hour we´re left in the dark and we get to see misfortunes and flashbacks accumulate in the hope of enlightening. It´s ironic how this film has been defined as "hitchcockian" when Hitchcock based all his suspense precisely on providing information to his audience, in the right amounts in the right moments. The opposite, which is what happens in "The Unknown Woman", turn the big moments colder. This foul is masked here by the schocking character of some scenes which will get a reaction out of the audience no matter how accidental they are. On top of that, it doesn´t know if it wants to be a thriller or a drama and those genre traits get in the way of each other. Some might appreciate this as some kind of global film, but I feel it could have lost all the cheap thrills in favor of being a full house melodrama.Ultimately, it´s a well intentioned, enjoyable mess about the courage of an immensely mistreated woman. Tornatore turns random events into film lessons but I can´t shake off the fact that this failed experiment would be an absolute disaster in less skilled hands. If you add up the genius of Morricone, who can make stones cry, this a terrible movie disguised as an auteur thriller. The core of the film is clumsy and, more important than that, it left me surprisingly cold when all was said and done.I must recommend a kind of similar film, "Chaos" (2001) by Coline Serreau, which, in my humble opinion, is an absolute masterclass on multi-genre, socially aware thriller film-making.

FilmCriticLalitRao One of the most positive aspects of "La Sconosciuta"/The Unknown Woman concerns emotional crisis affecting the morale of affluent European families.This has been depicted without resorting to even an ounce of sensationalism.Italian director Giuseppe Tornatore shows how personal lives of young professional couples are getting affected due to differences of opinion.His film depicts how a middle class family completely loses control over their only child.This is meant to be a foundation on which the film rests but the story is shaped in such a unique manner that viewers also get to have an idea about servants from different east European nations.There is no documentary cinema type realism in scenes where foreigners try to get themselves regularized. This is exactly one department where the film goes out of control as viewers are shown glimpses of how women are sold on Italian soil.It is not clear what Italian cinema author Tornatore wanted to convey as his film appears much too flashy.It jumps from thriller to family drama to social statement all at same time.In a way,this would surely confuse viewers as it is expected that they would like to enjoy one thing at a time.

robbmr It's 8/09, and I've just seen the DVD..a very 'difficult story to follow and decipher' on one viewing.However, no pro critic,or contributor to this Web. explains what "I believe is Irena's reason for becoming a maid in this household".All observers point out her past as a Sex Slave/prostitute in the Ukraine,but no one explains specifically why she has pin-pointed this family ,and in particular the little girl,to work for. The family are jewelry producers...the wife,I believe,designs and makes expensive jewelry. Among Irena's flashbacks to her earlier trade,we see her lying, battered by her bald client,with a specific piece of jewelry in her hand. She turns it over and 'We see the name of the family for whom she now is a maid in Italy'..YES, I believe that she departs from the Ukraine and her sexual slavery to seek out specifically this family..and this child.Why? Recall the flashback scenes when the sex slave girls are delivering newborn..lacking contraception,or for other reasons, these girls are apparently impregnated by their clients,who refuse to use condoms, and seemingly Irena not only is impregnated,but delivers a baby girl, who is purchased by an Italian couple.YES, the pimp gets the dough.So, what links Irena with the Italian family who adopts a foreign born infant.Check the name on the piece of jewelry in Irena's hand. And,lastly,why does Irena 'demand that this little girl',with a mental disorder which causes her to accept being a victim,learn to defend herself against all aggression,particularly little boys who push/hit her,causing her to fall and be injured.We must ask," why didn't Irena rebel against her Pimp.. and being victimized as a sex slave, and would she have allowed her own daughter to accept being a 'defenseless victim' . YES, she loves this little girl and completely devoted to her..and may even plot to recover her abandoned child..here in Italy..Welcome comments..

hiris I was very excited to watch another Tornatore's movie, but after 5 minutes I wanted to ask my money back! I really wasted 10$. The actors were good; this is probably the only thing I liked and allow me to give a "1" as a score. The movie tells the story of Irena, an Ukraine girl, who comes to a small town in North of Italy and works as a janitor in a nice building. She becomes a thief, steeling and making copies of the keys of the apartment of the Adachers, a rich family of jewelers, who lives in the same building. Then she is responsible for the falling of Gina,and replaces her as a maid in the family. The movie is characterized by feedbacks of Irena's past, when she was a prostitute, forced to have children and sell them. Just to the end, we discover the real plan of Irena: living close to Tea, the last child she was forced to have, and apparently was sold and adopted by the Adachers. But the ghosts from Irena's past come back and the story ends in a real drama and in years of prison for Irena. The all story was horrible. First, I'm really tired of seeing another Italian movie showing the story of a foreign from East Europe being a prostitute, a maid and a thief. Come on, Giuseppe, find something better! It looks an "amateur" story, not directed by a famous director as Tornatore, but by young director at his first movie. And don't tell me it was his first thriller: if somebody is not able to direct a thriller, just don't do it. There were good ideas but he just wasted them, and none of them look credible. As the falling of Gina, the old maid of the Adachers, is not credible. The old lady is paralyzed after falling down the stairs, and, just at the end, starts recovering from the accident. Her recovering doesn't make any sense to the story and is left in the air. Then the Mold, an evil character from Irena's past, performed by an excellent Michele Placido, who was killed by a giant scissor that would have killed an elephant, is still alive and comes back in Irena's life. Or the last name of the family that adopted Tea, chosen by the Mold by a name engraved on his necklace. Not to mention that, after Tea's mum died because of Irena, Tea continues to write to Irena while she is in jail and pick her from prison years later. I had the impression Tornatore started the movie without knowing the end and then he just developed it, adding new ideas, but none credible. I really don't understand how actors as Claudia Gerini, Michele Placido, and Margherita Bui decided to appear in this movie. It's really awful and it is far ages from Nuovo Cinema Paradiso and Malena.