Review of The Skin I Live In (2011) by Eric B — 09 Mar 2012

Spanish director Pedro Almodovar dabbles in horror with "The Skin I Live In," an unsettling tale of revenge, obsession and demented plastic surgery. Naturally, Almodovar's take on the genre is a sleek, colorful, brightly lit film stuffed with sexy Latin actors.

Competing with himself in the simultaneously released "Puss in Boots," Antonio Banderas glowers in his first Almodovar role since 1990's "Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!" He plays Dr. Robert Ledgard, a coldly calculating maverick who's experimenting with new skin-graft techniques. His motivation is more personal than scientific, because his deceased wife was badly burned in a car crash.

Ledgard has a private clinic within his lavish home, and holds a mysterious patient named Vera (stunning Elena Anaya) in a camera-monitored room against her will. Seemingly, no one knows of her existence beyond Ledgard's loyal housekeeper Marilia (Marisa Paredes, a veteran Almodovar player). The film -- which feels long at almost two hours -- gradually reveals Vera's background and true relationship with Ledgard.

Anyone who has seen the French classic "Eyes Without a Face" (1960) will recognize some common themes, but Almodovar's script needed more time under the knife. Amidst three awkward chronological jumps, some plot threads are erratically dropped (Ledgard's real mother, the medical ethics of combining human and pig cells) and an unnecessary visit from Marilia's estranged criminal son only serves as an excuse for more kinky sex and violence. The depiction of Vera also takes shortcuts to titillation -- she spends her days in a flesh-colored leotard (it reduces swelling, you see) and has a yoga habit that just happens to warrant stretching her lithe body into all sorts of alluring positions (attention, cameltoe fetishists).

Almodovar remains one of cinema's most delightful free spirits but, here, his sense of perverse mischief is mostly buried. OK, there is one scene where Ledgard casually prescribes a row of multi-sized dildos for Vera's use, but otherwise the script keeps a straight face. Between the lack of humor and a confused structure, "The Skin I Live In" doesn't live up to the potential of its flashy story.