Review of The Skin I Live In (2011) by Jesse O — 07 Mar 2012

What a completely and utterly strange film. And I mean that in the most complimentary manner possible as I found this movie to be completely excellent as Almodovar found a way to completely reinvent himself with this movie.

It's really kind of hard to review this movie without spoiling the story but I must say there's a certain kind of grotesque aspect to the story that is told without the use of gore or extreme violence.

Don't get me wrong there is a lot of violence, but it never feels exploitative and the movie is still very chilling without it. One of the best thing that this movie does is that when they finally reveal what is ACTUALLY going on, it completely changes how you view Vera.

You never look at the same character as you did in the beginning. And I don't think that this is something that is easy to pull off. The acting is also excellent, Antonio Banderas gives his best performance ever in this movie and it's a shame he didn't get enough love for his performance.

Elena Anaya is equally as excellent and the play off each other very well. And Almodovar is in top form as well. It takes a very gifted filmmaker to do something completely different than his previous works, but at the same time branding it with his own unique style.

This is an Almodovar film from top to bottom, there's no mistake about it. Overall this is an excellent movie with a very disturbing and complex story.