Under the Skin - Thoughtful Science Fiction

It took me a long time to get there, but I finally watched the much talked-about Under the Skin when I got back from my Christmas break last weekend.

This is an artistic science fiction film that stars Scarlett Johansson as a mysterious alien.  She and her accomplice, a male alien always seen riding a motorbike, travel southern Scotland in search of lonely men.  These men are lured back to a strange and oblique alien dreamscape where they appear to be consumed in an inky fluid, apparently unaware of their fate and for reasons unknown.  Much of this was advertised heavily when the film was released, and so isn't any sort of spoiler, but I wont give away anything else about the story, as the less you know about it the better.

The film is cleverly made in a way that emphasises the themes in the story.  Scarlet Johanssen is undoubtedly a Holywood A-lister, and the disconnect between the world we normally see her inhabiting and the world of southern Scotland is used to best effect.  Amateur and non-actors are used as bit-part characters.  Hidden cameras are used for street scenes.  All of this means that Johansson looks even more alien, as the people acting against and who see her seem ever so slightly star struck and awed by her presence, and the glamour she is normally associated with is striped back to a harsh earthy reality.  Kudos to Johansson for her English accent throughout the film, absolutely flawless - though admittedly her lines are sparse.

What we have then is an extremely thoughtful science fiction film, that's all about humanity and what it means to be a human.  This question is more easily-asked by an outsider, and so it is that Johansson's inhuman alien struggles to understand what humanity is.  The people that she encounters on her travels are vastly different in appearance, motivations and mannerisms, yet they are all humans.  It's the kind of science fiction that I enjoy, with a simple set-up that explores simple philosophical questions about the world.  No messages from the future encoded in a watch by a 5 dimensional being in a bookcase here.  When the special effects do come in though, they're excellent and work even better being their unexpectedness.

I cannot recommend Under the Skin to everyone.  It is a slow burner, and for many the oblique resolution will annoy rather than satisfy.  If you're a fan of real science fiction though, and you don't mind thinking about what you're seeing, then you should watch this film.