Review: Under The Skin and The Double at London Film Festival 2013

A report from London Film Festival 2013, by Jamie Brown

This year’s LFF presented the opportunity to see two significant new UK features on the same day, and it was impossible not to notice a few similarities. Jonathan Glazer's Under The Skin and Richard Ayoade's The Double are: both British; both independent releases that arrive courtesy of a collaboration between the FilmFour production stable and the BFI; both attempts to bring a modern sci-fi slant to a tried and tested story; both driven entirely by a major Hollywood star in the lead role; and both playing in London after being received with enthusiasm (at least by UK critics) at previous festival appearances. Both also line up as contenders in the festival's Official Competition (that's BFI speak for the best film award).

Glazer, best known for the excellent gangster drama Sexy Beast (2000), but inactive since critical flop Birth (2004), moves into completely new territory with Under The Skin, a film subject to much industry chattering. Indeed, some startlingly glowing dispatches from Venice and Toronto may have already placed it in the unfortunate position of trying to live up to the hype. My screening is completely sold out on a Monday lunchtime.

The story, based on Michel Faber's 2000 novel, concerns an unidentified visitor (Scarlett Johansson) who drives around Scotland in a van, seducing young men in the guise of a lost tourist before luring them to their death. When not performing her damsel-in-distress routine, this abductress cruises in silence showing barely a flicker of emotion. The film's opening scene, an abstract piece straight out of 2001: A Space Odyssey involving a gradually expanding white speck of light, some intergalactic imagery and finally the inside of a human eye, concludes in an all-white room with a nude Johansson removing clothes from the dead or dying body of a young lady, of similar appearance, and dressing herself in them. In short, the film is fairly open in suggesting the character may not enjoy earthling status.

An almost unrecognisable Johansson stalks the streets of Glasgow dressed in an outfit that treads a fine line between iconic femme fatale and hooker chic: jet black hair, fake fur, jeans and constantly re-applied red lipstick. She also speaks with a very convincing English accent. It's all too much for the passing hordes of randy Glaswegian boys, who think Christmas has come early when this vampish beauty pulls over asking for directions, and aren't afraid to assault her with the full force of Nuts magazine's best chat-up lines, though how the otherworldly female is meant to be understanding them is anyone's guess. The whatever-she-is engages each unsuspecting chap in small talk in order to ascertain that they live alone - she seems interested only in victims who won't be missed.

This extra-terrestrial odyssey north of the border is captured on locations around Glasgow and the Highlands. City streets are shot with an impressive eye for modern detail, and the natural landscapes are photographed to jaw-dropping perfection. When the film isn't out and about in Scotland, it occasionally feels as if it is visiting a space-age art installation, similar to the one used at its outset. This includes the temptress' chosen venue for finishing off her prey - a Tardis-like place which looks like a run-down council house from the outside, but becomes a void of darkness and creepy special effects inside. This netherworld is soundtracked by a terrifying avant-garde noise. It feels as if Johansson is picking the blokes up in Glasgow, then bumping them off somewhere inside the Tate Modern.

So far, not bad. But the film's axis is an uncomfortable encounter between the visitor and a disfigured man, another loner who waits until after dark to go to the supermarket. It is not entirely clear whether the-girl-with-no-name understands that the man is different to the others, although she at least recognises that he is nervous and that she needs to adjust her act a little in order to capture him. The man appears set to suffer the same fate as the others but then walks free, apparently pardoned. Unfortunately, with him go any further intentions one might have of staying with the film, as the questions we are meant to be asking become apparent: Is the alien becoming human? Could this have been caused by contact with human blood courtesy of a passing flower-seller? Perhaps she was confused by the kindness of passers-by when she tripped over in the street? But look... she's obviously not one of us just yet if she can't wolf down that lovely bit of chocolate cake! Whatever the reason is, our uninvited guest ceases to be a menace, and hunter becomes hunted. Fans of the genre will recognise that this isn't exactly original stuff, which wouldn’t be a problem were it not for the fact that this film really wants to be ground-breaking.

This is where I began to feel a little uneasy, and not in the way the film intends. The plot takes an unintentional turn for the silly just as the central character, who may or may not be real to us but to everyone around her is still a young woman, drifts into serious danger. I found the film had lost credibility just as it was asking me to engage emotionally; I'm happy to cheer on Johansson whilst she systematically relieves the world of sexist yobbos, but I'm not inclined to worry about her once she becomes prey to more sinister men because the dramatic devices that put her in that position were too daft.

Under The Skin wants to be another Berberian Sound Studio: an indie horror taking place in a setting that is part real-world and part creation, with a non-linear narrative, aesthetically pleasing effects and genuine scares. It achieves about half of that brief. The film suffers from taking itself way too seriously; the second half in particular drags on at a funereal pace and extends the running time to an unnecessary 108 minutes. The film makers may have got carried away due to having landed an A-lister for the lead role. If so, this is a shame because Johansson is great in the part and it's interesting to watch her performing outside her comfort zone. If Glazer had noticed that the basic premise of the story is Species, his crew's artistry could have turned this into a thoroughly enjoyable alien exploitation romp. Alas, I think there are some geeky designs on reinventing science fiction weighing down a potentially fine film. A tedious Q&A that followed my screening featured mostly technical talk, perhaps indicating with which audience this film will find most favour.

A humour deficiency is not an affliction shared by The Double, Richard Ayoade's follow up to the warmly-received Submarine. That film established Ayoade as a director, though he is perhaps still best known for his turn as Moss in The IT Crowd. This time, the big-shot found slumming it on a UK budget is Jesse Eisenberg. The Double is a dystopian black comedy set in a grim, totalitarian no-man's-land that closely resembles the Orwellian hell that Terry Gilliam envisaged in Brazil. Eisenberg plays Simon James, a meek and socially hopeless office boy who works for a mysterious organisation headed up by an unseen character known as 'The Colonel'. Simon is so anonymous that the security guard he passes every day at work never recognises him, and he can only dream of winning the affections of his dream girl, Hannah (Mia Wasikowska), who works the company photocopier, one of many enormous retro-futurist contraptions designed to make the film unplaceable in terms of period.

One day, James Simon, an exact physical replica of Simon James (so, Eisenberg again), shows up at the office and turns out to be everything that Simon isn't. The new employee becomes instantly popular with everyone, including Simon's bosses and would-be girlfriend, but Simon and James are apparently the only two people who can see that they're identical twins. At first the relationship between the doppelgängers is amicable; James coaches Simon in improving his social skills and wooing the ladies, and Simon helps James to get ahead at work. Eventually though, Simon realises he's being taken for a ride, and that James is the only one benefiting from their friendship. The penny also drops for Simon that the man he's spent his life wishing he could be is actually a bit of an arse. Realising that there is something to be said for his own qualities after all, but finding that it's too late to reverse most of the damage, Simon starts to lose the plot.

The Double is based on a Dostoyevsky novella, updated via various other familiar sources, and personalised by Ayoade with some absurdist British humour and a touch of tweeness. However, the film shares with its protagonist a frustrating habit of being too tentative. The personal identity theme feels at times like it may go full-on Gregor Samsa, but instead of exploring further into the darkness it retreats to a story of unrequited love at the office. Simon’s employers, with their windowless offices, meaningless job titles and ‘Big Brother’ figure, suggest a huge impenetrable bureaucracy, but the script isn’t prepared to walk any further down the path that leads to corporate power, police states and political oppression. The doppelgänger brings to mind Blade Runner-style replicants, but they aren't taking over the world; then we have the idea of an unhappy man longing to reinvent himself as somebody more capable and desirable, offering up Fight Club as a touchstone, but there's no deeper exploration of the male psyche here, and the cooler of the two Eisenbergs is more Mark Zuckerberg than Tyler Duerden. Many good (if not new) ideas are tried, but not developed. You get the feeling Ayoade might just be too nice for this territory, yet even the film's cutesy streak goes unfulfilled - Simon's quirky way of expressing his love for Hannah wouldn't have been out of place in Amelie.

The film fares best in its first hour, when some terrific deadpan gags and oddball characters support Eisenberg's classy turn in the twin lead roles. Sally Hawkins' cameo as an unhelpful receptionist is a particular scene-stealer. It is later when things runs into trouble: once the film has established the situation between the lookalikes, it doesn't quite know how to go about delivering a satisfying conclusion. However, this will not prevent fans enjoying later cameos from Ayoade's former IT Crowd buddies Chris Morris and Chris O'Dowd.

Unlike Under The Skin, The Double is aware of, indeed celebrates, its lack of originality, as many of the references used are intentional homage. Whilst Glazer’s film is fun spoiled by a desire to be considered serious art, Ayoade’s is a potentially profound film trivialized by a strange combination of diffidence and archness. What Ayoade’s film shares with Glazer’s is technical triumph, which probably explains the nods they’ve received from the festival committee. I would argue in both cases that the artistic flair and behind-the-scenes trickery don’t do enough to sustain films lacking in narrative substance, but The Double at least comes up short with a smile on its face.

Both Under The Skin and The Double will be on general release in the UK in spring 2014.

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