Review of Under the Skin (2014) by Dukstuf — 24 Nov 2014

Easily the smartest and most interesting film I've seen in 2014. Scarlett Johansson offers a brilliant performance- subtle at the start with an increasing sense of emotional peril as she loses her "human" exterior but seems to gain an inner humanity.

The story follows her change from heartless, unemotional and detached alien doing her job of collecting specimens, (or skins) for an unsaid nefarious purpose, to her bonding with humanity to the point that she betrays her employer/fellow aliens as she tries to rather hopelessly join the local earthlings and taste the joys and pains of humanity.

The film handles this in such an abstract and original way that it takes effort to keep up. It is not a film for those who want to leer at naked Johansson- which results in the negative scores, which, if you think about it, is really funny.

This is a film of the quality found in the directorial hands of a very few directors- Antonio and Kubrick spring to mind. It demands we watch it at it's own pace, and it moves away from the regular trappings of standard sci-fi fare into more artsy, thinking realms.

The performances of many of Scarlett's male victims seem natural and unforced- you really get the feeling she is preying upon people on our "real earth" as we pass through shopping malls and drab, regular, lower middle class places. This wildly complements the scenes aboard the alien's den, which are stark, artistically blank canvases. The effect is jarring and unsettling.

Some viewers complain about a "lack of story", but I didn't find this true at all. Johansson's brilliant double metamorphosis from lovely perfect human exterior with it's cold, calculating inhuman interior, into just the opposite- an alien monstrosity which now possesses empathy, joy, curiosity, pity and fear- is a might and moving transformation, and for this viewer, following this path is what gives Under the Skin it's unique look at the human condition, from a perspective I had not visited before.

And that is what film, when it is art, is all about.

Beautiful and horrific at the same time, this magnificent film reminds me of that similar balance of humanity and terror found in the equally wonderful Swedish vampire film, Let the Right One In.

This movie is for those who like real contemplation after their films- definitely not for the quickie gore/sexy nude actress crowd, nor the thrill ride set either, and I expect having Scarlett in the lead role, and the knowledge that she bares all here, (more than most actors ever will in the most extraordinary ways), probably has led many to expect an entirely different sort of experience than this smart, beautifully original motion picture.