Under the Skin on AllMovie

Samantha Morton, who soon after this film gained attention for her role in Woody Allen's Sweet and Lowdown, makes an impressive feature debut in first time writer-director Carine Adler's bittersweet saga about a troubled woman's uneven progress toward self-realization. Morton plays Iris, a woman who feels ignored by her boyfriend Gary (Matthew Delamere), her self-possessed pregnant sister Rose (Claire Rushbrook), and even her beloved mother (Rita Tushingham). After their mother dies suddenly of a brain tumor, Iris falls apart. Tired of a supervisor's hostility, she suddenly quits her job as a clothing saleswoman and has a sexual encounter with Tom (Stuart Townsend), a man she meets in a movie theater. Iris leaves Gary, starts wearing her mother's wig, and dresses like a slut. She gets drunk and desperately picks up men in bars, and she ends up being abused by Max (Daniel O'Meara). Iris mooches money from her sister and they fight over a ring that Rose claims their mother gave her. She finds out that her best friend Vron (Christine Tremarco) has taken up with Gary and tries to seduce Rose's husband Frank (Mark Womack).