Under the Skin is
the new film by Jonathan Glazer, a director perhaps best known for 2000’s Sexy Beast. It stars Scarlett Johansson
as an extra-terrestrial who prowls the streets of Glasgow in an unassuming
white van, seducing men and leading them to their deaths in a series of
extraordinarily bizarre methods.
I don’t think I’ve left the cinema feeling so irritated in
a very long time. This is not because the film is in any way terrible, as there
are undoubtedly some great pieces in there, but I just found it impenetrable. I
think a lot of this is to do with the cold, detached way in which the story is
told. It’s not a film about getting invested or caring about anyone involved
and in a way that’s the problem. There is something interesting and emotionally
involving to be found in the story but the film chooses to act more as an
observer than actually engaging with it.
On the plus side, there are a number of things to praise
within the film. The central performance by Johansson is electrifying,
perfectly capturing the strange, ethereal quality of an alien within a human
body, understanding that humans have certain emotions but not understanding why
(one might – and some have done so – draw a parallel with David Bowie in The Man Who Fell to Earth. The
cinematography is inventive and lends itself well to some of the more visually
interesting set pieces, such as the sequences when the alien leads her victims
to their deaths, and one death scene in particular has a moment of genuine terror
that took me several minutes to recover from.
The scratchy, other-worldly musical score is interesting at
first but quickly loses its charm after a few minutes and becomes, in the end,
rather grating and annoying, throwing me out of several scenes and adding to
the detached feeling that persisted until the end, though I still found the use
of special effects throughout to be visually enhancing and an actual
contribution to the story. There is also a seamless transition from the
acting and the real-life encounters with passers-by on the streets, filmed with
hidden cameras, although when the proper actors take over much later, they all
act like they’re in an art-movie, further adding to the lack of
engagement.
Under the Skin is
a failure, but an admirable one, an example of a film-maker daring to try
something different and inventive regardless of its success with the mainstream
or not and does so with a certain level of visual intrigue. It sells itself as
an erotic thriller, but at no point was I aroused or really thrilled…just
rather frustrated.
2.5 Stars
2.5 Stars
