The Headless Woman (2008 film)

Plot

On a road outside a city in the far north of Argentina, some poor boys and a dog are playing. Driving along the road, a middle-aged dentist called Verónica hits something and goes into shock. Instead of going back, she gets herself to a hospital for an x-ray and then spends the night in room 818 of a hotel. Going home next day, physically and mentally traumatised by her experience, she is unable to communicate what has happened. In time she manages to tell her husband who, after driving her to the scene of the accident, decides it must have been a dog she hit. Gradually she gets back to normal, her car is repaired and she feels able to work again and join in family activities.

Then, driving along the same stretch of road, she sees a rescue crew trying to recover something which smells terrible from the ditch. Later, the newspapers report that it was the corpse of a boy. When Verónica, who has dyed her hair and now drives the family's other car, goes to the hospital to ask for her radiology file, she is told they have no record of her. Going to the hotel, she asks who was in room 818 on the night of the accident and the receptionist assures her it was empty. Nothing links her to the death.

Cast

Critical response

The Headless Woman garnered mostly positive reviews from film critics. On review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an overall 72% "Fresh" approval rating based on 47 reviews, with a rating average of 6.9 out of 10. The site's consensus is: "Careful and slight, Lucretia Martel's Headless Woman doesn't fit neatly into a clear storyline, but supports itself with ethereal visuals." At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted mean rating out of 0–100 reviews from film critics, the film has a rating score of 82 based on 12 reviews, classified as a universally acclaimed film.

Accolades

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