This stark and intensely controlled film is the work of a powerful visual stylist and storyteller, one who looks like he belongs on the short list of directors who have carried the narrative methods of the silent era deep into modern cinema.
A genuinely weird and haunting little SF/horror/art flick that does get under one's skin. It stars Scarlett Johansson as an alluring but deadly creature of some kind. She roams around dull sections of urban Scotland in a plain van, picking up solitary men and doing something very strange to them. Around halfway thru, things change, and it becomes an interesting exploration indeed. The dialogue is very sparse, and the soundtrack is dominated by Mica Levi's dark score. There is some fine cinematography of Scottish winter landscapes towards the end.
Here's a movie I love to stare at in awe at how succesfully it manages to keep my atention, despite it's very slow pace.
One of the very few movies have made my heart almost stop with some of its imagery and sound.
It's a haunting masterpiece that's as fascinating as it is captivating
I love it.
Johannson turns out to be perfectly cast, being able to shift from blank alien mode to kittenish seduction without ever letting you see the switch being turned on or off.
You could take a short dive into a deep black abyss and experience the sense of ennui and melancholy that comes with questioning one's own existence in a world where you are alone. I did and ... meh.
The lady from the white van.
First of all, this is not an entertaining film, but an alien theme on a fictional plot like how they would come live among us. Before that, they need to look like us, so they steal human skins and that's what this film is about. Most of the film was in a van driving around in the Scottland. An alien disguised as a human, looking for the single men in the uncrowded places to seduce and steal their skins. But one day after got curious about being a human being, her routine work gets affected seriously and so what happens to her after is told in the remaining film.
It's certainly not the film I was looking for. That's the reason I did not watch it when it got out. But I kind of liked it, it was not as boring as the others advised me. Usually films are for pleasure and timepass and this film did not have those qualities. Hence it financially failed. Surely some people would enjoy it, particularly the critics praised it which is unusual.
From the director of 'Birth', Scarlett Johansson in the lead and she was the only good thing in it. The story was a little complicated, so not everybody going the get it, not at the first glance, but if you do, you will enjoy it. The locations were awesome. Watching it on the cold stormy day brought me that original Scottish atmosphere here. I should have rated it better, but no regret for what I gave for it. Its not a suggestible kind, though worth a watch if you're fed up with the regular commercial films.
6/10
There are really interesting visuals in the movie, the kind that could make it a pretty good one - but the story is garbage. It's way too abstract, and leaves you bored.
This was the most boring movies I have ever seen. I get the meaning behind it, but there is really nothing here. 108 minutes and only 5 very small things that actually happen. The entire movie she is driving or walking somewhere with no dialogue. That's it. And don't expect any answers either. I don't get the critics nowadays , they must be out of their minds.
Production Company
Film4,
British Film Institute (BFI),
Silver Reel,
Creative Scotland,
Sigma Films,
FilmNation Entertainment,
Nick Wechsler Productions,
JW Films,
Scottish Screen,
UK Film Council