Under the Skin (2013)

Some Spoilers

I had not realized until researching the movie to write to this review that Under the Skin is based on a novel of the same name by Michel Faber which came out in 2000. I suppose that makes sense because even though this movie is very visual the film that it reminds me of the most, likewise a very visual work, is also based on a novel, namely Arthur C. Clark's 2001: A Space Odyssey. There are certain visual cues in this film which evoke the earlier movie but don't copy it, a solid white, and later a solid black featureless chamber, the construction of a human type eye in the opening scene, and whatever it is that is happening to the men collected by our protagonist. Our protagonist is played by Scarlett Johansson, she is an alien given human form and her assignment is to collect human males, though for what purpose exactly is never made clear, it seems they are being taken as samples.

Because this nameless alien looks like Scarlett Johansson she doesn't have a lot of trouble luring unsuspecting men back to her dilapidated house, which is possibly her ship in disguise, possibly some kind of portal, and is located somewhere between Glasgow and Edinburgh Scotland. Scarlett is not used to being in human form, she is not used to being around people, or the sensory stimulation, sounds, smells, and such of the Earth environment in which she finds herself. While at first very single minded in her mission, driving around Scotland in a van, pulling over to the side of the road to ask some man for directions, sizing up her pray, flirting, and doing whatever ever it is she thinks she needs to do to get the man in the van with her, in time this changes. Something inside her snaps, she seems to develop sympathy, or at lest overwhelming curiosity about the humans, goes off script, goes rouge, and wanders about Scotland, pursued by her helper, an alien in male form who drives a motorcycle.

Johansson gives a great performance, a character of few words she really feels alien. That performance, as well as the direction of Johnathan Glazer, primarily a commercial and music video director, takes a premise that could easily be exploitive sci-fi and deepens it, makes it contemplative, at time stunning, and unlike most anything I've seen. A kind of art house Starman for lack of a better comparison. Beautiful locations, a few of which I had actually been to on my trip to Scotland about a year before this movie was filmed. Under the Skin really wowed me, I was not expecting this. Sometimes graphic, and sometimes slowly paced, I found it consistently fascinating, but it is certainly not for all tastes. ****