Whoa. For anyone who enjoys taking a trip way, way outside the mainstream and conventional, Under the Skin is the movie for you. It's an adaptation of Michel Faber's 2001 novel, but this vision is entirely director Jonathan Glazer's. Hypnotic and trippy in all the right ways, Under the Skin asks that a viewer exhibit patience and a willingness to think about what's transpiring on screen. Very little is spelled out in this movie; Glazer drops hints and clues here and there, but you have to recognize and connect them yourself, and it goes without saying that there's more than one interpretation. For the first half of this movie's 107-minute running time, I couldn't make heads or tails of where it was headed, but by the end, I at least had some idea. This isn't Weird for the Sake of Being Weird, it's Weird with a Purpose, and it's haunting fascination stays with you.
IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes will tell you that this movie is about an alien (Scarlett Johansson) who takes on a human form and travels around Scotland seducing men into a deadly trap. Indeed, that is correct, but the devil's in the details (or some might argue lack of details in this case). The alien is not given a name nor does the movie supply any backstory of why she's here and what her plan is (the novel goes into much more detail). All we know for sure is that, following her first appearance, she takes the clothes of a dead woman and goes about her business, all while a male helper dressed in motorcycle gear "cleans up" the messes, so to speak. Her methods involve seducing men who no one will likely miss, picking them up for a quickie, and leading them to their doom at her place, which involves a pool of deadly black liquid. But when she lets one victim escape after experiencing sympathy for him, her approach regarding sex and human life undergoes a slow but drastic change.
Does that "plot" description make sense to you? Don't worry about it. In the moment, it's not really meant to. What's perfectly obvious to anyone is that this might be the best performance of Scarlett Johansson's career. You may have heard she's seen fully nude during this movie, and indeed she is on three eye-popping occasions. But none of it is gratuitous; it's all in the service of an abstract, haunting story about an alien coming to grips with the sexuality apparent in the human form she's chosen. Johansson has little dialogue to fall back on and must instead convey a character through body language and facial expressions. She reminds us why, ten years ago (with her stunning performance in Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation), she was someone to watch for.
Johansson is the only on screen performer with more than token screen time (possibly excepting one of her victims, a shy man with facial deformities), so her real co-stars are Glazer's visuals, the evocative nighttime Scotland setting, and Mica Levi's memorably unnerving score. Glazer employs long, unbroken takes like he's being paid by length-per-shot (except for one chaotically shot car conversation where the alien drives a man back to her "place") . Most of the time, it suits the material perfectly, although there are times when one could argue that single moments last too long. As for Levi's score, it's possible to argue that this element "makes" the movie all by itself. The compositions are simple, but so unnerving that it's hard to imagine this movie being heard any other way. Think Eyes Wide Shut and you get the idea.
So what is this minimalist movie really about? What is it trying to say? I have some ideas, although yours might differ. Early in the film, when the alien ensnares several victims with the promise of sex, slowly undressing as she backpedals away from them while they follow her to their demise, she doesn't actually go through with the deed before they're toast. But what about when she confronts what sexuality really is and how it could benefit her the way it benefits humans, examining her nude body in a mirror and pondering whether it can be used for something besides death? And, while she's the unquestionable predator, could a physically stronger man turn the tables on her?
I can't stress enough that Under the Skin is not popcorn-munching entertainment. If you're looking for that, there's plenty of good options available elsewhere. This movie requires that you enter its trance and see it through. It's a classic "read-between-the-lines" kind of film, one that inspires all manner of post-viewing discussions about what the hell you just saw. Finally, I must note that this is once again an experience that can only work as film; if your thing is lengthy TV shows with clearly defined characters and arcs, you should know that this is about as far away from that as one can imagine. I for one, welcome its boldness any day.
Rating: ***1/2 (out of ****)
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