Review of Under the Skin (2014) by Spangle — 22 Nov 2014

Under the Skin is a great example of a film that wants to be more than it is, which ruins what it is. The film wanted to be very elusive and deep, but ultimately wound up being incredibly dull and uninteresting. On top of that, it was essentially like eavesdropping on a conversation between two people you do not know and you hear one of them tell the other a story. Along the way, you pick up some details and know what is going on, but you never really feel involved in the conversation and, ultimately, the story does not really have any kind of impact on you. That is this film. It tried so hard to be deep that it never really made you feel involved and care about the characters involved. On top of that, it never truly develops any character, namely because it never established any of them. This one did nothing with its characters for many reasons, the main one to me being that they wanted it to seem more artsy than it truly was, which was off-putting.

Now, there are some positives, namely the incredible cinematography. There are some seriously gorgeous shots in this one that truly floored me to the point that I really wanted to love this film. Scarlett Johansson was also very good here, even though her lines were limited. As a whole, Under the Skin is a beautiful film that lacks any true substance or quality beyond its looks. There is nothing under the skin about this one.