Starring Scarlett Johansson, Under The Skin is a tale of an alien being who arrives in Glasgow, takes the form of a beautiful woman and spends her time luring men back to her lair where they become a food source, but as it interacts further with humans it seems to develop more human like emotions and strays from its mission in search of a seeming escape from its purpose.

But a more appropriate statement would be, what is the movie actually about? I’m still not sure and my opening paragraph is doing the movie an injustice but it was the best synopsis I could come up with. It’s potentially so much more than that, as you can take what you want from this film. For me it was a role reversal tale about a female predator and its’ praying mantis style hunting, which, despite any advances we may have made towards gender equality, pointed towards the notion that there is still a primal instinct inside man regarding the allure of the female form and the desire to mate.

Director Jonathan Glazer deserves credit for developing something so off center it’s almost unsettling and brings a voyeuristic feel as, with the exception of Johansson there are no stars, the men are regular guys in every day places going about their business, the only thing that feels like it does not belong is appropriately Johansson who is absolutely superb. Her English accent against the broad Scottish accent of everyone else, already points her out as alien without even needing to state it. The expressionless performance, except when she forces emotions onto her face in order to continue her fascade feels realistic, the brutality she shows in contrast to her softer side when on the hunt comes as a shock and her seemingly genuine curiosity as she experiences new events are spot on. For all the good movie she has done I have rarely seen her as captivating or original as she was here.

I like movies which are a little unusual and the big difference here is that there are no answers to your questions so when things are occurring and you wonder about events there is no exposition, no reasoning, no solutions and when the shocking ending comes it’s as surreal as the rest of the movie but it’s this uncertainty which is the movies best feature and while the dark and depressing feel of the movie can make it a bit of a grind it’s well worth sticking with as, for good or bad reasons, it’s a movie that will stick with you and will get just where the title suggests.