What a mysterious, foreboding and riveting film this is. Scarlett Johansson stars as a nameless alien in the disguise of a seriously attractive woman who preys on unsuspecting men in a Scottish town. She drives around at night asking, seducing and compelling men to get into her car and come back to her place. Once back, they are trapped like flies in a spider's web, in a perplexing method that can only be attributed to an otherworldly being's diabolical desire.
Several things happen throughout this film that are given no causal explanation or leave the viewer reeling with questions that go unanswered. This is not a complaint about the film but is in fact, one of its charms: there are scenes and appearances by certain characters that defy narrative cuing or straightforward story-telling logic. I won't go into detail, but the baffling film has to be seen to be believed, (mis)understood, and enjoyed.
There are men who are able to escape the lure of the unconventional, complex alien character played marvelously by Johnansson. One individual has a severe facial disfigurement. Perhaps his loneliness or his alien-like existence persuade her to let him go in the end. We'll never know for sure. There's another man who offers assistance to her and provides her with a place to stay when she is in apparent distress. They become intimate in a surprising series of scenes and he ends up surviving.
There are compelling visual stylizations and motifs throughout this film. Director Glazer, inventively creates a dreary, overcast Scotland with certain hypnotic sequences that add to the effectiveness of the overall film and pushes the film into even more mysterious territory. Some will say that the film is too slow or weird for their taste. But, I was won over by this haunting story of what an alien being does to get by.
No comments:
Post a Comment