Under the Skin (2013)

IMDb plot summary: A mysterious young woman seduces lonely men in the evening hours in Scotland. However, events lead her to begin a process of self-discovery.
Directed by Jonathan Glazer. Starring Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy McWilliams, Lynsey Taylor Mackay, and Dougie McConnell.

(Some spoilers ahead.)

Some movies take on a whole new light when seen in comparison to the stories they come from. This is one of them. I read the novel only a month or two back, and it was one of the most fascinating reads of the year. This is... also a fascinating movie, but it makes some essential changes that make it something wholly different, and I'm not sure whether those changes improve it. It's beautifully filmed, but while the original story got to the "twist" much earlier and did a better job of fleshing the character out as, you know, a personality, the film is content to leave most of the answers until the end and oversexualize our main character (her "conquests" are 100% built around sex in the film, as opposed to the very mechanical methods of the novel). This creates a tight, creepy atmosphere, but also leaves me with a somewhat icky feeling, as if the filmmakers are eagerly connecting the predatory nature of our main character *directly* to the fact of her sexuality, while the two are almost entirely divorced in the original. I don't know that I'd be bothered by any of this if I hadn't read the book first, but it's not a case of "This isn't like I pictured!" so much as "Wait, why did they do this? Because some potential reasons make me uncomfortable." Why make those choices? Why turn it entirely into a movie about dangerous sex? Why eliminate the entire second half of the novel and end the story at the halfway point before there's been any actual transformation of the character? What were they trying to say? I am still sifting through all this mentally, and I don't know when I'm likely to arrive at an answer.

Currently 4 stars, but could drop if I decide these were bad choices.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Under the Skin > Ran
Under the Skin > Bubba Ho-tep
Under the Skin < The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996)
Under the Skin < The Phantom of the Opera at the Royal Albert Hall
Under the Skin < Doctor Strange
Under the Skin > Upside Down
Under the Skin < What the Deaf Man Heard
Under the Skin > Breaking Away
Under the Skin > Do the Right Thing
Under the Skin > The Hustler
Under the Skin < Face/Off

Final spot: #616 out of 2709.