The Skin I Live In

Rating: 4.5/5

I am a big fan of surrealist filmmaking. I love to watch movies that don't necessarily have narratives so much as a general theme. Some of my favorites include Pink Floyd: The Wall, Nobuhiko Obayashi's House, and Eraserhead. I also like foreign films, especially Japanese and Spanish-language ones. This year has been a really good year for foreign film with movies like 13 Assassins and TrollHunter outdoing most of our blockbusters. The Skin I Live In continues this with surrealism by being the best not-Drive movie out in theaters.

In 2012 Spain, brilliant and insane plastic surgeon Robert Ledgard (Antonio Banderas) lives isolated, obsessed with his invention: a skin that resists all damage. He is accompanied only by his servants and Vera (Elena Anaya), a beautiful young woman Robert keeps prisoner as a test subject. Vera is Robert's creation, to the extremity that her skin is his experimental design and her face is that of his late wife. Vera always wears a full-body "skin suit" and is given everything she wants but her freedom. After a break-in at the house, Robert's mental state further unravels and Vera's origins are slowly revealed.

Like most of Almodovar's other films, The Skin I Live In explores the Freudian insanity of human sexuality. One of this film's main themes is the use of sex as a tool for mental control and manipulation rather than love. Throughout most of the film, we know nothing about Vera except that that Robert wants total control of her, which he gets through what is basically rape. Almodovar never shies from the intensity, and does a magnificent job of inducing uneasiness and sometimes revulsion. This is the good kind of disturbing film, the kind where you want to keep watching.

Needless to say The Skin I Live In is strange. Every single scene is constructed and presented in crazy and surreal ways, but it all pays off. The second half of the film brings all the strangeness into an incredible and insane conclusion. Trust me, a lot of it seems pointless and boring, but The Skin I Live In. Almodovar has said that this is his Frankenstein, and it is. A mad doctor seeking perfection in a flawed creature that only desires freedom and independence. I can't talk anymore without spoiling the whole thing, so let me conclude.

The Skin I Live In isn't for everyone. Certain moments are very disturbing, and some may be bored. But if you can stick it out you won't be disappointed. The final act is brilliant, and will definitely leave an impact. Almodovar has given us a modern prometheus that lifts the mad scientist genre to a new level. The Skin I Live In is truly a work of art. So if you want some intelligence in your thriller, go see it.