This is an emotional sci-fi film that is fueled by emotionally charged moments of beauty,and a very soft,and rich performance. It's a film that has all the beauty that the surrealist masters like Terrence Malick,and Stanley Kubrick could harness,but it also has context.This is surreal,but not to the point of only being beautiful. This film has a story, just one that rather then being driven by dialogue is driven by imagery. This is a good thing though. It's a simple story that could have been ruined if over explained. Rather it presents creative,and interesting images that enticed me,and engrossed me.They did this enough to the point that with almost no dialogue I understood the motives of each character,and what they were. The cinematography is spectacular,and there's one shot that includes the a helper of our alien protagonist doing his job that is all in one take that actually for as simple as it was dazzled me. But then again that just couldn't be the only thing. Oh no. To get an audience to connect to a film you have to have other things to entice,and the film has those in spades. The music especially when something sinister is happening is haunting,and fits perfectly with the tone of the film. The film also is in actually many ways like a horror film,and the scenes that highlight this actually scare. The imagery combined with these scary parts keep the film intense,and engrossing even when it slows down. Also what the film has is Scarlett Johansson. Her performance is mainly done in her facial expressions because while the alien does talk a little bit it doesn't much. That's not to say it's a silent creature, actually much of the film is made up of her talking to the men that she picks up,and then in surreal moments captures,and devours (yep). Johansson does spend most of the film silent though,and her face tells all. It's a moving performance. But you know the film isn't all scary,and such. There is a variety of lovely moments in Under the Skin as well. The beginning where the naive little life form starts pronouncing words for the first time, the time when the thing figures out that it has a certain body part it did not know it had, and a time when it shows some kindness to a certain human being. Of course these moments aren't straight forwardly shown,but once you figure out what they mean they are nice. These moments actually had me thinking that maybe this creature was becoming more human than is thought is was. It seems as if it throughout the film has started to find itself as human. This is a nice thought that maybe the alien isn't so evil. There's a moment when the alien realizes it liked being human after something horrible breaks in cover,and it is heartbreaking. It all adds to the excitement, and the fact that they are there helps balance out the intense stuff which trust me the film needs. I did have one problem with the film though. The very ending is a punch in the gut that is devastating,but it doesn't bring out the amount of emotion I wanted it to. Sure the imagery held it together,but I think that it could have been edited a little bit better. Now that is the very end of the film so I can't mark the film down much for that though this problem is there. I give Under the Skin a 9.5 out of 10. It is a haunting,and beautiful film that should not be missed. P.S.: This film is not for everybody. If your a fan of blockbusters,and films that can be understood easily, don't waste your time. If not enjoy! Don't forget to comment!
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December 2017
CategoriesAuthorHello welcome to FilmAnalyst. My name is Stephen Tronicek, and I really like movies. This is a way to get my opinions out to people. Thank you for visiting. |