The Skin I Live In – Movie Review

movie review“La piel que habito” is a spanish production directed by Pedro Almodovar. Who also took part in writing the screenplay. Whenever I try to think of a category to put this movie in, I seriously cannot find one. But what is this movie about?!

The story of the movie is about a plastic surgeon genius (Antonio Banderas) who is specialized on reconstruction techniques. Fire victims for example. Then we also learn that the doctor lost his wife in a fire. We early on recognize that there is something odd going on with him. As well as the situation at his home. He is keeping a (really beautiful) woman (Elena Anaya) there. But the impression is that he’s not holding her captive. She seems to be there because she wants it. That is one mystery that has to be resolved throughout the movie.

The movie, every now and then, goes into ‘retro-mode’ and shows things that happened in the past. The movie, in fact, jumps around quite a bit. I personally had no big problems to follow it though. We see quite a few disturbing things that happened in the past of our main character. Banderas plays his part pretty cold and almost untouchable. Nonetheless we are always able to see the characters inner workings/emotions through his eyes. Some good work on that part.

Now it comes that the daughter of our doctor is almost getting raped by a young man (Jan Cornet). I personally wouldn’t categorize what happens there under ‘rape’. The young man early enough stops what he’s doing. To me, he seems to be able to understand that he did something wrong. This may be intentional to create a certain mood/setup for this character.However, our doctor is out for revenge and kidnaps the young man. The doctor clearly has a plan.

That’s actually everything I want to tell you about the story. I fear I already told too much and don’t want to spoil it all. The movie offers quite some nice twists and requires the viewer to be up to speed with the things going on. In the later parts of the movie it manages to really play with the viewers perception of the characters. It left a weird impression in my brain and that’s a good thing. It’s a real thought provoking resolution the movie has there. And that’s what I really loved about it.

Beside the really good screenplay, we also have a very nice camera work, to round up the technical aspects of the movie. Acting and performances of all involved worked great too.

I still struggle to put this movie into a specific category. It is an interesting take on ‘kidnapping’ movies. And there we have a ‘sort of’ category for this movie. It constantly keeps us interested in what the conclusion to all the story is. And there will be quite a conclusion!

Normally certainly not my type of movie, but it’s definitely a good thing to be open for new things. Especially with movies. Give this one a chance if you see it somewhere. It’s a pretty good one!

7.7/10

The Skin I Live In on IMDb

2 Responses to “The Skin I Live In – Movie Review”

  1. Anja Says:

    Thanks for the interesting review! It is very interesting (as always). ^_^

  2. Tigaer Says:

    This movie in particular has quite some interesting story twists. Check it out if you can. :)

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