Nordling here.
I'm going to make a confession here - THE SKIN I LIVE IN is my first Pedro Almodovar film. I know he's one of the great filmmakers of our time. WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN, MATADOR, TIE ME UP! TIE ME DOWN!, ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER, so many great films, and I haven't dived into any of them. It's not that I don't want to. It's just that it hasn't happened yet. So I can't judge the brilliant THE SKIN I LIVE IN from past works.
In a way, that's a good thing - I get to experience those films for the first time, and I can review THE SKIN I LIVE IN without the "baggage" of his other works. I can judge it as a movie, alone. And by that stretch, THE SKIN I LIVE IN is as pure a horror film as I've ever seen, and while there's very little gore in it, the ideas and the motivations of the characters are enough to truly disturb. This is a film best approached clean, without reading any reviews (probably including this one). I won't spoil, but this twisted tale of identity and love turned into obsession and spiritual mutilation should be seen with as little information as possible.
Doctor Robert Ledgard (Antonio Banderas) is an experienced doctor with the flesh. Specifically, burn victims. He's created a synthetic type of skin that acts as a shield for burn wounds, but it seems that Ledgard's been developing the skin through unethical means. Seems he's got a young woman, Vera (Elena Anaya) held captive in his house, locked away with no contact with the outside world except for a dumbwaiter that brings her food and her sewing equipment in. While she does her morning exercises, she knows she's being watched by Dr. Ledgard, who seems obsessed with her. Vera looks uncommonly like Ledgard's dead wife, and there's something... wrong with her. Dr. Ledgard's housekeeper, Marilia (Marisa Paredes) knows there's something not right with what Dr. Ledgard is doing, but she does not act. But events force the situation to a head - an intruder, Marilia's son, Zeca (Roberto Alamo) has come to his house, and discovers Robert's captive. To reveal more would be wrong, except to say there are deep secrets in Robert's past, and a revenge so dark and twisted it turns the very nature of a person's identity on its side.
I can't write more than that about the plot. But Almodovar has created a real horror film with THE SKIN I LIVE IN. It's disturbing to the core, but also very funny. One particular scene, as Banderas explains a medical procedure that he's done to one of his victims, is so deeply twisted and maniacal that the only response is to laugh and shudder at the same time. Antonio Banderas is a revelation here, a deeply wounded man who turns his pain into a deep revenge. I'm told that Banderas is at his best when he works with Almodovar, and I believe it - I've never seen him, as an actor, so on target and as good as he is here. Elena Anaya is also uncommonly good as Vera - she is a split soul, and as her very body betrays her nature, she becomes so much more than the victim here. All the performances here are terrific.
Where does THE SKIN I LIVE IN fit in Almodovar's catalog? I'm not sure. From what I understand, this is his first all-out horror film, and yet it's not as simple as that. The horror of THE SKIN I LIVE IN doesn't come from gore or the supernatural. David Cronenberg's DEAD RINGERS explored the nature of identity and how in the end, the characters played by Jeremy Irons became the same person, in and out. THE SKIN I LIVE IN doesn't operate, plotwise, anywhere near Cronenberg's film, but I couldn't help thinking about it as I watched it, as Almodovar makes us question the very nature of ourselves, and what it would take to break what makes us... us. THE SKIN I LIVE IN explores these themes in a confident manner - Almodovar knows exactly what he wants to do - shake the audience to their core and wonder at the nature of identity. He succeeds wildly.
I realize I'm being very vague about the plot, but the way the story unveils itself in THE SKIN I LIVE IN is part of the fun and the horror. It's as if Almodovar saw what truly disturbs about the genre and pinpointed exactly the worst thing imaginable, and then sticks a needle in it. THE SKIN I LIVE IN is worth seeing blind - just go in, be prepared to be taken on a disturbing ride, and what comes out on the other side is not clean. It is broken and can never be repaired. Pedro Almodovar has made a film about the very nature of identity and how it can be shattered into a million pieces by the angriest of men. If you thought Chan Wook-Park's Revenge Trilogy was disturbing, wait until you see what Almodovar does here. THE SKIN I LIVE IN is an amazing film.
Nordling, out.
