Rate this Movie 
The Unknown Woman (2006)
Tomatometer
How does the Tomatometer work
Reviews Counted:39
Fresh:25
Rotten:14
Average Rating:6.1/10
Consensus: If it's occasionally manipulative, this Italian melodrama mixes thriller conventions with a poignant love story and keeps the tension rolling from start to finish.
Theatrical Release:2008-03
Synopsis: Russian actress Xenia Rappoport gives a rich, complex lead performance in Giuseppe Tornatore's Italian thriller, THE UNKNOWN WOMAN (LA SCONOSCIUTA). Rappoport stars as Irena, a deeply troubled... [More]
Starring: Ksenia Rappoport, Clara Dossena, Michele Placido, Claudia Gerini
Director: Giuseppe Tornatore
Get This Movie
Rent DVD
Click on the "ADD" button to put this movie into your Netflix queue.
Buy DVD
Reviews for The Unknown Woman
| Tomatometer | Critic | Review | Category |
|---|---|---|---|
 4/5 |
a movie that's almost impossible to get out of your head. Full Review |
||
|
Click to read the article Full Review |
|||
|
3/5 |
Un intenso y atrapante thriller con algo de melodrama que bien podría haber dirigido Brian de Palma. Full Review |
||
|
3/4 |
Tornatore, best known for Cinema Paradiso, has meticulously crafted a story that's at times so raw it hurts to watch. Its action blends piercingly lit flashbacks and dream sequences with a gray, prosaic present in an unnamed Italian city. Full Review |
||
|
|
Tornatore's instincts for crafting a stylish, nonlinear thriller are indisputable. But he's not yet a master, and at times you'll feel cheated even as you anticipate the next disquieting scene. Full Review |
||
 |
The Unknown Woman falters when it falls into exploitation and fatal contrivance. Full Review |
||
|
|
The film has major problems blending the strong social theme of exploitation and white slavery with Tornatore's noirish screenplay, full of holes and improbabilities. Full Review |
||
|
4/4 |
[An] exquisite mystery thriller. Full Review |
||
|
4.5/5 |
It’s the toast of the continent and once you’ve watched it, the reason why it is will be anything but a mystery. Full Review |
||
|
|
Plays like a cross between Hitchcock and tabloid feminism, a mix that shouldn't work and doesn't. Full Review |
||
|
B |
Writer/director Giuseppe Tornatore ("Cinema Paradiso," "Malèna") reveals a hitherto unknown side of his own with this dark jigsaw puzzle of a mystery. Full Review |
||
|
3/4 |
A spellbinder with a lot of Hitchcock touches and an Ennio Morricone score to match. Full Review |
||
|
4.5/5 |
Giuseppe Tornatore has crafted a film for the ages. With some script assistance from Massimo de Rita, the writer/director is at the top of his game, bringing together a truly mysterious tale of love for family and unbridled revenge in a manner that could Full Review |
||
|
2/4 |
The whole movie hangs on the gradual unraveling of the central mystery and is made with the expectation that the audience is fascinated and hanging on every tidbit. But Tornatore overplays his hand. Full Review |
||
|
4/5 |
Everyday incidents trigger in Irena alternately sweet and horrific memories, and these become like pieces in a jigsaw puzzle that is completed only when the film concludes, at last revealing its full meaning. Full Review |
||
|
2.5/4 |
It manages to be brutal, deranged, ridiculous and heart-rending, all at once. Full Review |
||
|
2/5 |
Postures as empathetic while getting its leading lady out of her skivvies -- there's nothing bold about taking a stance against human trafficking Full Review |
||
|
|
Meet the filmmaker that [Tornatore] is today -- sadomasochistic fantasist, exploiter of women and cheesy Hitchcock imitator. Full Review |
||
|
|
The Unknown Woman gets by on sheer guts and style. Full Review |
||
|
|
An exceptionally well-made example of the kind of delirious, semi-Gothic, overcooked melodrama filmmakers from the Boot have long specialized in. Full Review |
CommentLatest News for The Unknown Woman
September 19, 2008:
OtherCool.com: Wanting it both ways, Tornatore presents the tragedy of sex slavery, while lavishly eroticizing it. And without a clue about female desires or dreams, whether sex slaves, servants or hysterical psychos, beyond their sexual apparatus. 
More...
May 29, 2008:
Critical Consensus: Sex and the City Will Please Fans
This week at the movies, we've got love and commerce (Sex and the City: The Movie, starring Sarah Jessica Parker and Kim Cattrall) and romantic getaways gone wrong (The... More...
May 18, 2008:
Trailer & Poster review
More...
RT On Current TV
What’s Hot On RT
Fresh Links
Featured
Techland lists the best Sci-Fi films of this decade.
Moviefone takes a look back at the biggest stinkers of the past 10 years.
The Me and Orson Welles star answers reader questions on TIME.com.
Hollywood.com's C. Robert Cargill offers his thoughts on what the best decade for film was.
In the AV Club's "Scenic Routes," Mike D'Angelo reminisces about the Tim Burton film.
Promos
Get the latest Tomatometer updates on upcoming movies!
IGN RSS Feeds