Scarlett Johansson strips but little’s laid bare in the inscrutable Under the Skin
UNDER the Skin: Don’t try to decipher what happens when Scarlett Johansson’s character lures single men to her home. In all likelihood, you will be wrong.
Leigh Paatsch
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IT is a Scarlett Johansson movie, but not as we know it.
It is a sci-fi movie, but then again, it is not.
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It might be a private joke, or it could be a public service announcement warning of the dangers of getting picked up by ScarJo in an unmarked van.
It is definitely a radical experiment in screen minimalism, designed to provoke extreme reactions of frustration and exhilaration from each viewer.
It is Under the Skin.
It isn’t long before this immovably inscrutable affair has you feeling you are in over your head.
A little advance knowledge is a dangerous thing when approaching Under the Skin.
So let’s proceed cautiously when addressing what filmmaker Jonathan Glazer (with just his second film since his spectacular 2000 debut Sexy Beast) is really up to here.
Johansson plays a character without a name, a backstory, nor any particular motivation in life. Her days and nights are uniformly the same.
Eerily so, in fact.
She moves from town to town across Scotland, luring single men into her vehicle. Small talk and coy glances are exchanged. They pull up at her house, and go inside. And then ... ?
Don’t try to answer that one. In all likelihood, you will be wrong.
However, there is no right way to interpret what happens when this strange and unworldly woman closes the door behind her latest guest.
Many viewers — especially those initially enthused by the news that Johansson misplaces all of her clothing on repeated occasions throughout — are going to find Under the Skin too abrasively abstract for words.
Others who might be prepared to give the film both the respect and derision it truly deserves are going to be in for one of the most unusual experiences of 2014.
Under the Skin (MA15+)
Director: Jonathan Glazer (Sexy Beast)
Starring: Scarlett Johansson
Verdict: Three-and-a-half stars. Curious case of Scarlett fever
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