Imagine the body as a vessel, an exterior shell that holds the essence of the individual. The body plus the psyche equals the being. Now, imagine an external force either filling the vessel or emptying it.
Two thought-provoking films with this concept at the center have been released this year. The first was Jonathan Glazer’s Under the Skin, in which Scarlett Johansson plays a predatory alien who first acquires a body and then a sense of humanity in order to attract her prey. The second is Honeymoon with Rose Leslie as a newlywed who is seemingly having the humanness drained from her. Under the Skin became something of a darling for the Art House crowd, due to Johansson’s superior, naked-in-more-ways-than-one performance and a moody, broody atmosphere that bordered on pretentiousness, but never quite crossed over. Director Leigh Janiak’s Honeymoon is less ambitious and more conventional than Glazer’s work, but remains a worthy companion piece to that film.
Meet Mr. Karma 