With a hook like "Scarlett Johansson is an alien sexual predator", a film should be able to attract audiences pretty easily. Unfortunately, most will probably find 'Under The Skin' a little difficult to swallow.
And it’s a shame, because a hook like that is probably the only reason this film could be made in the way that it was. No doubt the financers let director Jonathan Glazer get away with the more experimental parts of it simply because they thought, hey, we have a sexy alien Scarlett Johansson, how could we lose? I’m not sure if that gamble paid off, but it sure makes for a fascinating film.
Johansson is actually outstanding as the cold alien seductress who, in a pretty ambiguous opening sequence, adopts the body of a beautiful woman and begins driving the countryside of miserable Scotland luring men back to her house where they are … well, it’s not really clear what happens. But it’s hinted that their insides are chewed into some kind of chowder for UFO fuel. This very effective operation takes a turn, however, when she releases one of her captives in a rare moment of regret, and has to go on the run from her motorbike-riding extraterrestrial partners.
And it’s here that the film really develops, and proves that it is interested in going further than being a sexy alien story (and yes, that is actually a subgenre – I checked). Lost, Johansson’s alien wanders the countryside, and starts to explore her humanity. Unfortunately, she discovers that being a human is not all it’s cracked up to be, especially a female one at that.
And sure, there are still some things you can say about it. Shots often linger far too long in a way that borders on indulgent. Sometimes this works beautifully, but too often these choices come across not as thoughtful, slow, reflective film-making, but as disingenuous attempts to pad out weak substance with fashionable arthouse minimalism.
In the wider scheme of things, it also seems to have an attitude about sex that is problematic. This idea — man as animalistic lust-driven maniac, woman as corrupting immoral seductress — is an incredibly old-fashioned attitude to human sexuality that’s negative, oversimplified and actually, well, sexist. Perhaps this is meant to be some sort of allegory for the hidden dangers of suppressed female sexuality, and how men should stop pursuing sex because — look out! — she might turn out to be an alien who’ll grind up your insides for mincemeat. That’ll teach you. If that is the point here, it unfortunately misses its mark, and at the end of it all the film actually may end up achieving the opposite.
However, that reading of 'Under The Skin' is probably unfair. It’s clear that director Jonathan Glazer is very thoughtful and brave in his choices, and this is much more than a movie about a sexy alien.
4/5
'Under The Skin' is in cinemas now.
– written by Martin Ingle
