Under the Skin Review

I was getting a bit worried that the British film industry was getting soft with crowd-pleasing films like Brassed Off, Mrs. Brown and Spice World, The Movie...and then along comes Carine Adler`s Under the Skin, a tough little movie about a tough subject - female promiscuity. After the death of their mother, played by Rita Tushingham - two sisters grieve in their own way. Rose - Claire Rushbrook - is pregnant and misses being the baby to her parent, despite her stable marriage. Iris - Samantha Morton - whom we can see believes she is the less loved - dons her mother`s fur coat and chemotherapy wig and embarks on a voyage of self-detonation, shrugging off her boyfriend and indulging in a series of increasingly debasing sexual encounters...This tersely told tale features a knockout central performance from Samantha Morton - her androgynously sexy body cloaks but doesn`t hide the searing pain inside. Beautifully shot by Ken Loach`s cinematographer Barry Ackroyd, imaginatively edited by Ewa J. Lind and with a startlingly good soundtrack, this first film by British filmmaker Carine Adler ventures into brave new territory, exploring the destructive side of female sexuality and the complex nature of family relationships. It`s a provocative and painful film that sears the emotions while adding the balm of good filmmaking.