For years I felt like I was screaming in a desert like some lunatic. Ever since I first saw this gritty and utterly bleak representation of post-Thatcher English I have been telling everyone to see this movie asap. Mostly I just get confused and slightly scared looks in return. Some chuckled and asked whether it was a porn movie.
Mike Leigh has always had a knack for realistic characters that have a hidden layer beneath that the conversation surface.
"Naked" features David Thewlis in the role of his life as Johnny who feels utterly unable to communicate in an environment which leaves a lot of people disconnected. Additionally, his complex and sarcastic personality don't make things easy for him. The movie features another male character which could be seen as a sort of alter ego to Johnny. While both men don't treat women all that well it is the alter ego which mistreats women for his own sadistic pleasures. It seems Johnny partly acts out of self defense trying not to get hurt and partly out of the immense frustration of not being able to really communicate and connect with people.
At the end the characters are pretty much left off the same when we first encountered them, for better or for worse. For Johnny there's no peace of mind and he continues fleeing from everyone including himself.
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