It took Anna 10 years to recover from the death of her husband, Sean, but now she's on the verge of marrying her boyfriend, Joseph, and finally moving on. However, on the night of her engagement party, a young boy named Sean turns up, saying he is her dead husband reincarnated. At first she ignores the child, but his knowledge of her former husband's life is uncanny, leading her to believe that he might be telling the truth.
Direction
Glazer's 3-minute silent close-up on Kidman—no cuts, just her face processing impossibility.
Cinematography
Desaturated winter NYC as purgatory; every frame looks like a Rothko in mourning.
Acting
Kidman's trembling stillness; Cameron Bright's unsettling dead-eyed conviction.
Director
Jonathan Glazer
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The famous bath scene used a body double for Bright; Kidman and Glazer spent weeks negotiating boundaries with child psychologists present. The MPAA initially gave it an NC-17 for 'psychosexual tension' alone.
Glazer has called this his 'failed film'—it bombed, critics were split, yet it directly shaped his approach to Under the Skin. The alien in that film? Essentially this movie's atmosphere made flesh.
US
