ScarJo goes nude
A huge amount of the pre-release publicity for Under The Skin focused, rather lecherously, on the fact that Scarlett Johansson was going full-frontal for some of the intimate scenes. On the surface, this is simply a case of resorting to desperate measures to promote a difficult movie.However, the choice of Scarlett Johansson as the central character is actually remarkably shrewd. Depending on who you talk to, she is the sexiest woman in the world – someone that would appear on the sexual fantasy lists of many men. This plays into the central conceit of the film, in which sexual blindness afflicts many of the unfortunate male characters. In the scenes where Johansson puts an end to her prey, she leads them into a pitch black room, in which the only thing they can see is her body as she strips off. Both literally and metaphorically, they are blind to everything else and it is this that leads them to a very sticky and unpleasant demise.
More to life than conventional beauty?
So we’ve established that Under The Skin puts forward the notion that being blinded by beauty can only lead to horrible things. But what of its beautiful protagonist herself? There’s a pivotal scene in the second act of the film in which Johansson’s character picks up a hooded man in her van. When he removes his hood, he is shown to have a number of disfiguring tumours on his face (due to a rare condition called neurofibromatosis). Her tender conversation with this man triggers a vulnerability that she had not previously shown. In a recent interview with The Observer, actor Adam Pearson gave his interpretation of that particular scene and the message of Under The Skin. “For me, the film is about what the world looks like without knowledge and without prejudice. It’s about seeing the world through alien eyes, I guess.”
This is the clear position occupied by Scarlett Johansson in the film. Her character views the man played by Pearson without the discomfort some humans may display. She doesn’t think that image matters, until she notices the effect it has had on a man for whom she has a lot of warmth. Crucially, the moment that Johansson’s character becomes aware of the notion of body image, she becomes cripplingly insecure and is unable to continue her work.
Her lowest ebb comes when she attempts to have sex with a kindly man, but is unable to. She can mimic human beauty, but she cannot attain human intimacy. For her at least, looking attractive and luring in men is no longer enough.
Constructed sexiness is our downfall
At the climax of Under The Skin, Scarlett Johansson’s central character is killed when she is set on fire. When her human skin starts to come away, it is revealed that, under the pretty facade, there is nothing but blackness and emptiness to her.It’s a fitting indictment on the character that give her demise a poignancy that it would not otherwise have had. Despite her development and vulnerability, it is human lust (she is killed by a man who tries to rape her) that ultimately destroys her and reveals the nothingness within. So there you go. I just hope this article is more entertaining than Under The Skin.
https://thepopcornmuncher.com/2014/04/18/analysis-under-the-skin-as-a-critique-of-a-society-obsessed-with-body-image/
