Review: The Headless Woman (2008) ★★★★
When people are faced with chaos, or, to be a bit less melodramatic, an absence of facts that would otherwise bring about a sense of order, we are inclined to recoil from the source of the confusion. Often we retreat into ourselves, as the apparent lack of sense gives rise to doubt, doubt of things we consider to be fundamental: reality, identity, morality, and so on. We question everything because we fail to understand anything. It is a state of confusion akin to being out of breath, unable to focus on anything else until the uncomfortable feeling is gone. This is the sensation that Lucrecia Martel’s The Headless Woman attempts to replicate.
The cinema is a particularly effective medium for producing this sensation, both artificially for the characters and genuinely for the spectator. I don’t often associate a confused spectator with superior filmmaking, though there are many brilliant films that consciously confuse and frustrate (the Surrealists would have nothing with which to occupy themselves otherwise). Argentinian director Lucrecia Martel takes a formal approach to the chaos and confusion of mirky events with The Headless Woman. In the film, the protagonist finds herself unable to make sense of anything, and the audience is made to feel the same way.
The Headless Woman begins with Veronica (María Onetto) driving down a deserted road. While distracted with her cell phone, she runs over something. She stops for a moment, clearly shaken by what has happened, but soon composes herself, to a degree, before continuing down the road again. From this point forward, Veronica struggles to make sense of anything; even basic activities like conversing with others and comprehending her surroundings become arduous tasks. After returning home, Veronica admits to her husband, Marcos (César Bordón), that she believes she ran over a person. Although he is skeptical and thinks that her mind is playing tricks on her, he agrees to help investigate. However, when traces of the day’s events begin to disappear, Veronica questions her own sanity and falls further into a state of guilt and confusion.
What makes The Headless Woman so effective is its commitment to defy everyday reason; it is not just that it withholds answers from the audience, but it withholds any semblance of normal human behavior. The bizarre mannerisms of the protagonist, and the way that others react to her, create a kind of surreal dread. Veronica is similar to a person suffering from a concussion, who is then forced to piece together events that are a complete blur. She stumbles about, pained by the complexities of everyday life but unable to free herself of the haze her mind has created. Meanwhile, her husband and other friends and acquaintances act unaware of (or indifferent to) Veronica’s outlandish behavior, compounding her paranoia and her belief that all is not quite as it seems. This perpetual state of uncertainty builds suspense in the narrative, though some might find the level of ambiguity frustrating.
Many psychological thrillers are overly reliant on disorders of the brain, disorders which are artlessly described to the audience as if the characters were reading straight from a medical encyclopedia. Every action can be explained by some symptom or a particular neurosis, and in the process these films lose touch with how trauma and stress actually effect people. There is often no clear-cut definition for how those experiencing a mental episode behave, and while The Headless Woman is certainly not a reflection of reality, it creates an atmosphere that mimics Veronica’s state of mind without drowning in tedious exposition. With every nonsensical comment or mysterious reimagining of events, the audience must sympathize with her inability to make sense of it all, while simultaneously struggling to make sense of Veronica.
It is certainly a slow-burn, and some may not be able to get past feeling completely out of the loop for the vast majority of the film, but The Headless Woman is a brilliantly cerebral and tense thriller that should not be missed.
Rating: ★★★★ out of 5
If you’d like to watch The Headless Woman, it is available to rent or purchase via Amazon here.
