Review of Under the Skin (2014) by Digmaster — 25 Jul 2014

Yes, that is a 10 rating. Why? Because it is refreshing to see a film that relies on the exercising of our cerebrums rather than satisfying the "lizard" parts of our brain with non-stop action, gratuitous sex, and over-the-top CGI animation. Ironically, it is exactly that older, basic part of our brain to which the hapless victims in this film succumb, lured by the de-glammed and striking natural beauty of Scarlett Johansson, an apparent alien known to the viewers and her prey as "Laura." At times both mesmerizing and repulsive, Laura is both succubus and protagonist as we ride this existential roller-coaster to a surprising yet oddly appropriate conclusion. I will admit that your average sci-fi addict may find this film a bit to "artsy," but this movie is much more than a science fiction about aliens who have developed a fondness for human flesh tartare (a far too common theme). This film is more of a mirror reflecting back a sobering view of the human condition, both at its worst and at its best.

When the film starts as a small point of light in the distance surrounded by total darkness, growing ever larger until it is large enough to morph into what appears to be a surreal image of birth, then followed by a transformation into an eclipse and then a human pupil and iris. The accompanying musical score is both irritating and eerie, a combination that makes the viewer edgy and fixated on the imagery. I couldn't help but immediately think of certain scenes from Stanley Kurbrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey," a stylistic homage not lost on many viewers and critics, it seems. Next we see a fully safety-suited motorcyclist (the suit almost reminds one of a space garment) retrieve the body of a young woman (Scarlett Johansson) from what appears to be a ditch on the side of the road. The next scene is of this body placed on a lighted floor being stripped by a naked woman (also Ms. Johansson) who then puts on her clothes just as we see a single tear coming from the left eye and running down the cheek of the newly naked woman on the floor. The alien woman (but is she really a woman?) now has the appearance of the doomed female on the floor. From this point forward, "Laura" drives about Glasgow in a white, windowless van selecting her prey (young men) like an urban-camouflaged jaguar. She feigns being lost, a ploy that allows her to interview various men on the street, making sure they meet the right profile (young, strong, single, childless, live alone), then seductively offers them a ride that ends horribly for each victim who passes through the entry way to her home. Once inside, the seductive dance continues as Laura, well ahead of her duped would-be lover, continues to strip in an endless dark space covered by a jet-black, shining floor. Her amorous suitors, following entranced, also de-cloth, and soon the floor turns into black liquid that engulfs each one, at which point Laura gathers up her discarded apparel on what to her is a still solid floor. At one point the director allows us to see the fate that awaits those who become encased in this pool, and it is one of the most horrific scenes in cinematic history, and also where we learn one of the meanings of the film's title .

Ultimately, the huntress Laura lures a facially disfigured man into her inescapable liquid web, but then allows him to leave even after he becomes submerged, the first evidence of compassion exhibited by the alien (As an illustration of just how devoid of compassion these visitors can be, in an earlier scene, Laura is chatting up a foreign surfer on the beach as a woman tries to save her drowning dog from the raging surf, her husband then tries to save her, then finally the surfer tries to save the husband, but fails, only to wash up on the beach to be clubbed over the head by Laura and dragged off to her van, as the family's infant is left crying, now alone on the beach. The abandoned child is still there, hours later, when the motorcycle man shows up to clean up the crime scene, completely ignoring the child.). After letting the one man escape (her act of mercy later thwarted by the motorcycle driver), something changes, leaving Laura in a semi-catatonic state, abandoning her van and wandering aimlessly through Glasgow and into the country side where a well-meaning man takes here in and tries to nurse her back to health. It is at this point she seems to awaken to the fact that humans are more than haute cuisine. It is also following this epiphany that she is exposed to both the best and worst aspects of human behavior, the final consequences of the latter that lead to her demise.

I found this movie refreshing, chilling, artistically brilliant, and thought provoking. Scarlett Johansson was the perfect combination of feline seductress and passionless, other-worldly entity that slowly transforms into confused catatonia as she begins to develop empathy for her former prey.