Horrorfest 2013: The Skin I Live In

I was surprised but happy to see Pedro Almodovar's latest film THE SKIN I LIVE IN on the IMDB list I'm working off of this month. I've been meaning to check it out, so here we go.

Spoiler warning: The great Antonio Banderas stars as a plastic surgeon driven to revenge after becoming unhinged thanks to a double trauma involving the burning and eventual suicide of his unfaithful wife and the rape and eventual suicide of his daughter.


It's difficult to discuss much of the plot without giving something away. As usual, Almodovar's story never goes where you expect it to go and always has a surprise waiting. Going into this movie I had no idea what I was in store for and was genuinely surprised by the twists and turns of the plot, which is more than I can say about most movies, even the supposedly surprising ones.


Suffice it to say that once again, Almodovar tells a story that jumps back and forth between the present and the past, from one point of view to another, and reveals motivations you could never guess. We're continually presented with the end result of a plot element before we're filled in on how things came to be that way, and it is never the explanation that you think it's going to be. There's sex, violence, sex-violence, romance and lots of creepy mad doctor type stuff.


Banderas remains sympathetic, regardless of his actions, and I guess that's what makes a movie star a movie star. Elena Anaya also does some heavy lifting as Banderas' prime experimental subject, always rising to the occasion of what the plot asks of her.


The film deals with questions of gender and sexual identity and I'm not really sure where it lands on these issues. I guess it doesn't land anywhere, really, which I suppose is fine, since it's difficult to ever really have an answer when it comes to issues as complex as that. Still, the topics raised could be troubling for some viewers -- too "out there" for a conservative audience, not sensitive enough for a more liberal one. On one hand, you don't want to see this kind of stuff used as window dressing for a pulpy, exploitative thriller. On the other, it's fun to have some pulp and exploitation served up with your art and social commentary. So I don't know what to tell you. In lesser hands THE SKIN I LIVE IN could have been a disaster, but these are not lesser hands.