There are worse ways to market a film than “naked Scarlett Johansson.” A lot of them, in fact. I daresay if Scarlett Johansson appears naked, a lot, in your film, I’m not even sure you need to offer anything else. Funny story …
Under the Skin is a “guess what’s going on” film. If you’ve come to this picture just for the nude ScarJo, you are in for a world of “huh?” We met her being retrieved from a ditch, slung over the back of a biker. Is she dead? It would seem so. She’s brought to an all-white room and laid flat. Then a naked Scarlett Johansson enters (yes, now there appear to be two of her), removes all the clothing from the body and puts it on. I don’t know if it was the real Scarlett naked in the clothing transfer scene. Does it matter, really? The naked body on the ground is stiff and lifeless, yet the camera captures a tear flowing. Not dead?! What’s that about? Now, here’s where the initiates will be lost – we never come back to this moment. You simply accept skewed reality and move on. Are there two ScarJos? Are there 50? Is this like Sam Rockwell in Moon where a replica constantly replaces the used-up model? Is she robot? Alien? Who knows? And I’ll give you a hint to keep the frustration at bay: you may never get an answer.
Donning the new wardrobe, Scarlett goes on the prowl. Her character has no name, btw, so I really do have to call her “Scarlett.” She buys a fur coat and then cruises around in an abduction van looking for single men. Always men. Always single. Always expendable – ones without family or jobs where they’ll be missed. Is she deliberately attacking the morally corrupt? It kinda looks that way, but later on she collects a surfer exhausted from saving a man in the ocean. That’s messed up.
Scarlett drives around Scotland and picks young men up with little more than a glance. The two huge ironies here are 1) that naked or no, she looks a lot better in the Avenger films than in this one. Maybe she just wanted to attract one at time here. 2) In The Avengers, she plays “Black Widow,” a metaphorical man-killer. In Under the Skin, she is a literal black widow. The men follow her 
into a dark apartment. She leads them to a room without walls. It’s eerily black. She disrobes as she walks. The men don’t need more than that. Any eeriness the man might feel is lost in focus. By the time he’s nude – and there is as much male as female nudity in this film,– the floor envelops him and he oozes into a previously unseen black swamp. No shouts. No noise at all.
One thing I really didn’t understand was: where are the erections? Would that put Under the Skin in the NR category? Sure, I can take that Scarlett might be a robot. And I can live without understanding the dialogue or motives from anybody and I can see the luring men to a death of black liquid Pennzoil. But, seriously, Scarlett Johansson strips on the spot and the guy is still in “Scared Turtle” mode, really?
Under the Skin is a weird film. It’s quiet and unassuming and then very dark in both literal and figurative senses. There’s not a lot of dialogue here, and even when there is dialog, it’s in a thick Scottish accent being spouted by horny men; so while you’re unlikely to decipher what’s being said, you probably don’t care, either.
♪The screenplay is always weirder
O’er across the lake
You dream about ScarJo naked
But dat is a big mistake
Just look at the blokes she attracts
They’re doomed as doomed can be
A black hole of pain awaits them
It’s just like reality
Under the skin
Under the skin
Baby, it’s better
Without a sweater
And even more♫
Rated R, 108 Minutes
D: Jonathan Glazer
W: Walter Campbell, Jonathan Glazer
Genre: Confusion
Type of person most likely to enjoy this film: Horny teenage boys
Type of person least likely to enjoy this film: The easily addled
♪ Parody inspired by “Under the Sea”
