Under The Skin

I had not seen any trailers or read any reviews of Under The Skin, so I didn't really know what to expect from it, but it will live long in the memory as one of the most bizarre films of 2014.

It is difficult to sum up the plot, as the film lacks any sense of a narrative arc, particularly in the first half of the film, many of the scenes could almost be put in any order, and it would not alter the dynamic of the film. Based in Glasgow, and later in the Scottish Countryside It Stars Scarlet Johansson as a woman who seems to be going round picking up men to kill them. (I didn't pick up on the Character having a name, but IMDB tells me she is called Laura)

This is a deeply unsettling film, the opening pre-title sequence is designed to be extremely unnerving, and does its job very effectively, by the time the live action started I was already wondering exactly what I had got myself into, in fact quite early on in my screening at least 2 people walked out. The use of plain backgrounds is also very interesting, just one or two characters (Usually Naked) on a completely white or completely black screen adds to the sense of this being very unusual.

I can' say that I enjoyed watching it, but then I get the sense that it is not a film to be "enjoyed" in that sense, it does what it sets out to do, leave you feeling extremely uneasy, and does it very effectively. However for me it lacks an awful lot of sense. There is little in the way of narrative storyline or plot development, Although the twist on the end explains some of the elements (Although I had seen it coming, if you think carefully about the opening scene it was quite obvious) the film left me with a whole load of questions that went unanswered, such as "Who is the man on the Motorbike?"

This is a very difficult film to rate, on the one hand the lack of a story that makes sense really put me off, but on the other hand the film achieves exactly I believe the film maker set out to do. this is not one for the feint hearted, it is deeply unsettling and contains lots of nudity 7/10