Cert 15
108 mins
BBFC advice: Contains infrequent strong sex and frequent nudity
"So, what did you think?", asked the enthusiastic lass who had taken my ticket for Under The Skin at Derby Quad two hours previously.
Earlier in the evening I had predicted that I would struggle with Jonathan Glazer's movie having read reports of its bizarre surrealism.
"I loved it," she replied to my downbeat forecast. "It really made me think".
Thus, knowing that she would buttonhole me after the film, I conjured my thoughts during its final moments.
"Bewildering but compelling," was my summary which seems rather pretentious now that I have written it down.
In my defence, Under The Skin provokes a response which is out of the ordinary. It is by far the weirdest movie I have seen this year, prompting me to think of it as the Holy Motors of 2014 but it engaged me in a way that Holy Motors absolutely did not.
And before I hear the cries of "that's because Scarlett Johansson takes all her cothes off!" let me assure you that it isn't.
Johansson is one of the most beautiful women in Hollywood but there is nothing erotic about her stripping off in Under The Skin.
She plays a alien in human form who picks up men from the grotty areas of Glasgow and lures them back to a house with the promise of a bit of rumpy-pumpy.
Apparently, the men were not actors and Johansson really did pick them up as she drove around Glasgow in a battered old van. She was wearing a black wig and they didn't recognise her.
One of them appears to be made up to be severely disfigured and yet I read in an article about the director that this is how he appears in real life.
The conversations between Johansson and her targets are improvised and there are also scenes in a nightclub and on Glasgow's streets where she walks around, unnoticed by the locals.
So, the backdrop of Under The Skin prompts curiosity and Johansson is terrific.
But on the down side, the storyline doesn't make a great deal of sense at first viewing.
However, what it does is exactly what the lass at Quad predicted: "make you think".
It is not one of the best films of the year but I bet it will take some beating for being the most unusual.
Laughs: none
Jumps: none
Vomit: none
Nudity: yes - lots
Overall rating: 7.5/10