The Headless Woman

Lucrecia Martel's The Headless Woman opens with a pre-title credit sequence worthy of Hitchcock: the well-to-do Verónica (María Onetto) is driving on an isolated highway in rural Argentina when her cell phone rings. As she tries to retrieve it, her car hits something, jolting her head. After stopping to regain her composure, Verónica continues on as a rainstorm begins—while the camera reveals a dog's body left in the road. Following a hospital examination, Verónica confesses to a brother-in-law with whom she is having an affair that she believes her auto accident may have involved more than a dog, but after checking with friends in the police department, he assures her there was no reported fatality on that day in that location. When Verónica and her family are on the same thoroughfare a few days later, however, they see the police retrieving a boy's body from a drainpipe. The Headless Woman teases the audience with questions of how much Verónica genuinely recalls and whether her brother-in-law and other family members are attempting to cover up something. While much of the story can be read as an allegory on how Argentine society dealt with the abuses of the so-called dirty war conducted during the years of military dictatorship in the 1970s, the film also works brilliantly as a psychological drama that continually stays several steps ahead of the audience. Martel's direction is assured and subtle at every turn, right up to the very satisfying conclusion. Highly recommended. (P. Hall)