Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I'd heard various reactions to this film before watching it, some very positive, some negative, both commenting on how confusing and strange it was. David Lynch's 'Eraserhead' was the most popular comparison. While I think any attempts at comparison are going to fall well short of the mark, I'll say that 'Under the Skin' is a slow-burning SF-Horror film that's closer to Kubrick's meditative pace on '2001', with the realistic, semi-improvised dialogue of Gus Van Sant's 'Elephant' and 'Gerry'. {**SPOILERS**} Scarlett Johanssen plays one of two aliens who has taken human form. Just how alien they are cannot be fully appreciated until the second or third 'seduction'. After picking up a stranger in her non-descript van, she brings him to a dilapidated rural house. Leading her would-be suitor into utter blackness, she leaves a trail of clothes behind as she undresses; the unfortunate victim stumbles forward, oblivious to the impossible metamorphosis of the floor beneath his feet as he sinks into the black, like a sabertooth tiger chasing its' prey into a tar pit. Fully submerged in a viscous, translucent oil, other figures are visible... and so is she, somehow walking across the surface meters above. In a particularly haunting moment, two victims try to make sense of what's happened to them, and reach out to clasp hands in desperation, before one of them implodes in a shockingly violent manner that leaves nothing but his skin behind, like a discarded wrapper. The black liquid is the alien life-form, 'digesting' humans and absorbing their consciousness along with their bodies. With each instance, she becomes more and more human. From an insectoid disregard for human suffering, she eventually appears to take pity on one of her would-be victims, letting him free. But when the male alien hunts him down and kills him, cleaning up her mess like a worker drone, she leaves on her own, and ends up in a relationship with a kind-hearted man who takes her for a girl on the run... which she is, sort of. Things take a disquieting turn for all parties, resulting in a violent conclusion for the mock-human that has shaped itself from the communal form/intellect of the black liquid. This, however, is just one interpretation. Director Jonathan Glazer deliberately strays from the more concrete narrative of Michel Faber's novel, allowing the viewer to use the spare audio-visual data as they wish, a tactic which allows varied opinions on what it all means. This refusal to spell things out definitively has inspired something close to outrage in some viewers, a righteous indignation all out of proportion to the film's supposed faults. Under the Skin is mesmerizing at times, with beautiful cinematography that makes certain sequences, the 'black widow' scenes in particular, seem dreamlike or hallucinatory. But as far as truly strange films go, this is nowhere near the top of the list. In some ways it's actually quite simple; but Glazer's conscious decision to forgo the signposts and signifiers that usually accompany science fiction requires a certain level of personal interpretation that some people obviously find off-putting. I enjoy watching a film that requires more from its audience, providing small islands of imagery and narrative separated by open water that the viewer must navigate alone. My own ideas about the story are easily summarized: an incredibly alien form and intelligence produces two doppelgangers by reshaping itself, and sends them out to acquire experimental subjects/food. As the female doppelganger spends time in this new world and new body, it begins to develop the qualities of an human individual... until it hits a wall, so to speak. While I didn't find the film confusing, and I don't think it possesses the complexity of Mulholland Drive or Lost Highway, both of which are like Russian Nesting Dolls of narrative and meaning, Under the Skin is certainly open to multiple interpretations. Director Jonathan Glazer has created an ambiguous and poignant science fiction art film, which is always dangerous territory. The few examples that exist, however -- 2001, The Moon, Solaris -- usually take advantage of the existential nightmares and metaphors that space travel so readily implies (the womb, birth, death, nothingness, nihilism, isolation, etc.). Under the Skin takes the viewer into terra incognita, gives us a glimpse of the truly alien as it absorbs, and is finally absorbed by, humanity. One of the other comments that surprised me after seeing it suggested that 'Scarlett Johansson must really regret doing this movie'. I hope not. I don't think there's anything to regret about Under the Skin. I'm a huge Lynch fan, and this is not imitation-Lynch. This is a quietly disturbing look at humanity through alien eyes, and it's one of the most unique and haunting fims I've seen in a while. If you need your movies to smash every idea into your brain with a hammer, there's a sequel to 300 out on Blu-ray, and it only sucked half as bad as I thought it would.