LA SCONOSCIUTA [THE UNKNOWN] *** ½

LA SCONOSCIUTA – THE UNKNOWN *** ½

By way of Hitchcock and some De Palma, celebrated Italian auteur Giuseppe Tornatore has created a deft little thriller that also acts as social commentary without ever compromising on suspense. In a film this craftily edited and superbly filmed, Tornatore sets a brooding dim tone early on and keeps a dark tension throughout the film.

Perhaps heavy handed at times, in Tornatore’s still clever mystery, Irena, as portrayed by Russian Xenia Rappoport, is a Ukrainian immigrant with an awful secret, desperately seeking domestic work in a new country. She is also forcibly trying to forget her traumatic past that nonetheless seems to catch up with her. In time she insinuates herself as the maid and nanny to a curiously wealthy family and soon bonds uncomfortably with the family’s little girl. Nothing is exactly as it seems and even the revelations in this yarn are surprises in themselves, even once you think you have them all figured out.

All part of Tornatore’s master plan, with a touch of early Polanski as well, the director, who also wrote the script, seems busy imitating the style of grand guignol cinema while broaching a delicate subject matter - some will say insensitively and crudely - that seemingly becomes the catalyst to the logic behind most of the action. In many ways, THE UNKNOWN cannot be the suspenseful film it is without the socio-political agenda that sets its story in place.

Fine dramatic turn from star Rappoport (who won the Italian Oscar for this role – one of five prizes it took last year, including Best Film, Director, and for Ennio Morricone’s original score), she eerily reminds one of a younger Judy Davis in her tragic yet aggressively appealing demeanour. Rappoport has a not only a striking face but an entire body to match that seem, together, to possess vulnerability and guarded survival instincts at once. Equally matched by a beautiful & powerful Claudia Gerini as the woman who at first entrusts the stranger and welcomes her into her family’s lives only to, later, regret it. And then there’s a startlingly awesome performance from young Clara Dossena who supplies equal weight in all of her verbal duels with Rappoport. Most incredible are the disturbing scenes in which Rappoport’s character educates the youngster in the art of self-preservation.

Tornatore may have comprised for his art, creating an imperfect film precisely because he selectively overcomplicated matters, in what seems to be much his grand scheme to keep the mystery going in lieu of the social commentary. Still like the more difficult 500-piece jigsaw puzzle, the film’s complexities do keep the audience startled, if not frustrated with anticipation, and guarantees that not once will its interest wane. In this respect, Tornatore, who has not made a film since 2000’s MALENA, confirms that no matter the genre he is still very much in top form and in control of making movies for audiences - at least his type of middling highbrow audiences – that will run to see his films, no matter the genre, so long as his name is up above the marquee.