Critic Reviews
56
Metascore
Mixed or Average
positive
8(53%)
mixed
6(40%)
negative
1(7%)
Showing 15 Critic Reviews
90
The final act is all but guaranteed to astonish and satisfy. See this movie.
80
Sweet, however, are the uses of melodrama in the skilled hands of Tornatore, for he transcends the lurid and the coincidental with range, depth and insight, and a bold, confident, suspenseful style, to create a fable of love and redemption.
75
Russian-born Xenia Rappoport gives it her tragic-heroine all as an abused Ukraine prostitute-turned-sneaky housemaid in Italy in The Unknown Woman.
75
It's a spellbinder with a lot of Hitchcock touches and an Ennio Morricone score to match. But does it play fair with us?
75
It's an elegant nail-biter.
70
The melodrama form allows Tornatore to examine such current issues as human trafficking and black-market babies within a yarn that, for all its sentiment, is never less than gripping.
70
Brings peaks of violence and suspense to the vivid story of a young East European prostitute-turned-cleaning lady intent on carrying out a mysterious mission in Italy.
63
The film is flat-out gorgeous and contains moments of sheer lunacy.
60
Ms. Rappoport’s sturdy performance helps keep this outlandish melodrama from collapsing into unintended comedy.
58
Rappoport is a powerhouse performer but the movie is an unstable concoction of political melodrama, film noir, and weepie.
