Thin Skin

Alien honey-pot on wheels (Scarlett Johansson) in Under the Skin.

««1/2  Under the Skin. Written by Walter Campbell & Jonathan Glazer, based on the novel by Michel Faber. Directed by Jonathan Glazer. At select theaters.

Why would alien beings come to earth, other than for anal probing? That's a good question, usually answered with something like "for our natural resources" (e.g. Independence Day, Pacific Rim) or because the aliens see us as a threat (The Day the Earth Stood Still) or simply because they're devoted butterfly collectors (E.T.). Give Jonathan Glazer (Sexy Beast) credit for going in a unique direction in his low-and-slow thriller, Under the Skin.

          Based on the novel by Michel Faber, Skin is set in Scotland, where it rains and fogs so much the natives barely see the stars at all. In the environs of Glasgow, a seductive young woman (Scarlett Johannson) drives around in a van, trying to pick up solitary men. She's spooky, and she dresses like she stole her clothes from a dead runaway (which she did), but she often succeeds because, well, she looks like Scarlett Johannson. Once she lures her prey to a nondescript house, the men disappear in a manner that I won't spoil here.

          But what happens isn't really the point. Glazer—a filmmaker who made his name making music videos for the likes of Blur and Radiohead—is really after casting a visual spell. Underscoring his character's outsider perspective, every frame of Under the Skin is composed with a fussy precision that makes Scotland seem like an alien landscape. The Galwegian burr of most of the speaking characters is nearly incomprehensible, evoking a kind of otherworldly gibberish. Creative sound editing, and a truly terrific musical score by Mica Levi, key the film's hypnotic pace. For these reasons, Skin has been called a throwback to a former generation of atmospheric mind-benders like Picnic at Hanging Rock, 2001, Blow-Up, or the original Solaris. The word "Kubrickian" has been thrown around.

          I wouldn't go that far. While Hollywood has indeed abandoned adult atmosphere to cater to juvenile tastes, this kind of slow-boiler hasn't really gone away in the art house. Films like The Proposition, Meek's Cut-off, Enter the Void—and virtually everything Jim Jarmusch has made—still pop up regularly. Nor does Glazer's deliberateness really approach the rigor of Kubrick, which was really about constructing an intellectual vision as much as a creepy mood.

          Truth be told, after forty minutes of this, it becomes pretty clear that Skin is pretty thin stuff. We long for this alien to do more than wander about, wearing her human body like a stiff set of new clothes. Glazer is a talented—perhaps even visionary—filmmaker, but is there any doubt this film would never have been released if it didn't involve Scarlett Johannson picking up random men? (Apparently, at least some of these dudes really were just casual passersby, enticed by Glazer's crew as they filmed in Glasgow.)

          We get a big reveal in the end that settles much about this honey-pot's true nature, but precious little about its (her?) mission, intentions, or psychology. Do the aliens really believe human skin is the most noteworthy thing about life on planet Earth? Is it just a means to some other end? Unlike old masters of cinematic mystification like Antonioni and Tarkovsky, Glazer doesn't beguile us enough to forget those kinds of questions.

© 2014 Nicholas Nicastro