Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Scarlett Johansson, Paul Brannigan, Jessica Mance, Krystof Hádek, Scott Dymond, Michael Moreland, Joe Szula, Adam Pearson, Lee Fanning, Alison Chand, Lynsey Taylor Mackay, Jeremy McWilliams, Steve Keys, Andrew Gorman, Gerry Goodfellow.
Under The Skin will take thought and immense concentration to sit through but the result will be worth it as Director Jonathan Glazer leads a relatively unknown cast, bar of course the major star in the room, through a message laden era adaption of Michael Faber’s novel.
As a young alien in the guise of a recently dead woman roams the streets of Glasgow, the tenement blocks hiding a million souls looks on as she lures lonely men to their deaths in such a way that fans of James Bond will no doubt see the mirroring in the way Gemma Arterton was killed off in Quantum of Solace and cheer for a far superior showing, even if the eroticism and the finality of the men’s final moments kicks home that we may believe as a species to be on top of the food chain but something will always come along to take the meat that lies Under The Skin.
What makes the film an attractive offering is to see Scarlet Johansson pushing herself as an actor, much in the same way as she did when playing alongside Bill Murray in Lost In Translation. Although she plays one of the best characters in the Avengers/Iron Man/Captain America franchise and gives the films that feminine growl, the spirited anger that can sometimes go missing in comic book adaptations,
This is a woman with much more talent than you sometimes feel she is given credit for. As the alien Laura, she dominates the screen throughout and gives a better account of what she can do than just by playing the Russian spy Black Widow.
When she has found the human quality of compassion in a young man badly disfigured, Scarlett Johansson seems to take the story into realms that really show her depth as an actor, to be able to completely withdraw into a blank state of being takes some doing and its why the actors who were in One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest were so lauded for their portrayals. As her character finds herself at odds with the objective, so more of the repulsion oozes across the darkness and the in keeping music that has haunted and screamed like a desperate child throughout.
Under The Skin is a work of art and not to be taken lightly. It is not the film for a gentle passing of time and then to be left half remembered over some discussion in which to fill in the break in conversation, it deserves respect for the way it was shot and captured as if being allowed to be a spectator, some creeping voyeur who knows what’s going to happen but is far too interested in letting it stop.
Scarlett Johansson is back to the promise of being one of her generation’s great American female actors and whilst she will perhaps in some eyes forever be seen as the leather clad Russian assassin in Iron Man, there is so much more to her than meets the eye and it has taken Jonathan Glazer to get rid of the restraints Under The Skin hides and it has rare cinematic appeal.
Ian D. Hall