'The Skin I Live In' review

Elena Anaya and Antonio Banderas (Credit: Lucía Faraig/Sony Classics)

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Ever since a fiery car crash claimed his wife’s beauty and ultimately her life, brilliant plastic surgeon Robert Ledgard (Antonio Banderas) has been obsessed with creating an artificial skin that would have kept her alive. Twelve years of top secret tests later, he’s finally achieved his goal. He couldn’t have done it without the help of dedicated housekeeper Marilia (Marisa Paredes) and mysterious human guinea pig Vera (Elena Anaya), but should he have done it at all?

The buzz: Before his iconic Hollywood roles as Zorro, Puss in Boots and Robert Rodriguez’s badass Mariachi, Banderas was already massive star in Spain thanks to his collaborations with leading Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar. They last worked together on 1990’s “Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!,” but Almodóvar has long said he hoped for a reunion on this adaptation of French crime novelist Thierry Jonquet’s “Tarantula.” It finally happened, and the film premiered at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

The verdict: There’s nothing unusual about an outrageous and unpredictable movie from Almodóvar, but “The Skin I Live In” is shocking and surprising even by his standards. You won’t want to have a single one of the deliciously juicy twists spoiled before you see it, the pleasure of discovering every turn for yourself is part of what makes the experience such a knockout. With a lurid and initially disorienting story involving a crazed scientist, vulnerable victim and multiple acts of violence, “Skin” could’ve been fertile material for any number of horror or sci-fi masters. But Almodóvar administers his patented brand of sublime craftsmanship and finely tuned melodrama, slowly uncovering the profound soul to this chilling tale that could have been lost in the hands of a less compassionate sensationalist. The result is no less perverse or disturbing than it needs to be, it just happens to be equally thought-provoking and moving. While Banderas’ ballyhooed reunion with Almodóvar doesn’t disappoint, his movie star charisma is surprisingly upstaged by Anaya’s calmly magnetic breakout performance. The Spanish beauty has been a fixture in European cinema for over a decade and appeared in English-language films including “Van Helsing” and “In the Land of Women,” but her bold boundary-breaking achievement here could easily put her on the same level of Almodóvar’s original choice for the role—Penélope Cruz. Assured supporting turns from frequent Almodóvar collaborator Paredes and the less veteran Jan Cornet, Roberto Álamo and Blanca Suárez prove just as crucial. Whether “Skin” earns a place alongside Almodóvar’s most appreciated work, or simply goes down as one of his most oddball efforts, the unsettling and unique film is destined to live on. Once you’ve seen it, you’ll only need a few words to remember it forever, and there’s no limit to the ideas it leaves behind.

Did you know? Almodóvar is never shy to cite his cinematic references and says he deliberately matched the film’s establishing shot of Toledo, Spain to a shot in Luis Buñuel’s “Tristana” as a tribute to the influential surrealist.

Follow Metromix's Geoff Berkshire on Twitter: @geoffberkshire

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