A twisted modern-day Frankenstein story

The Skin I Live In (2011)
Certified: 18
Running time: 117 minutes
Directed by: Pedro Almodóvar
Starring: Antonio Banderas, Elena Anaya, Marisa Paredes, Jan Comet, Roberto Alamo, Eduard Fernandez, Blanca Suarez, Susi Sanchez, Barbara Lennie, Fernando Cayo
KRS release

A Pedro Almodóvar film is always an event in itself as you know that you are in for a totally different viewing experience. The Skin I Live In lives up to these expectations and even more.

The film sees a return together of Mr Almodóvar and Antonio Banderas after 21 years. This adaptation of Thierry Jonquet’s 1995 novel Mygale (Tarantula) is a twisted work, a mix between horror and thriller that does not come pegged down with the usual twists that usually predetermine the genre.

In The Skin I Live In we meet Robert Ledgard (Antonio Banderas), an esteemed surgeon who lives on the outskirts of Madrid. He tries to keep the memory of his late wife alive through his work. He has created a skin graft technique that is much more resilient than normal skin, a technique that he names Gal after his wife.

Robert has a secret: He keeps a woman called Vera (Elena Anaya) captive in his basement and with his invention, he tries to turn her into an exact copy of his wife.

Howerver, his life and secret run into trouble when Zeca (Roberto Alamo), who is his servant’s son, enters his home after a robbery.

That is when he sees Vera and thinks her to be Gal with whom he had a love affair. He forces himself on her but Robert finds him and shoots him.

Robert then remembers the troubles he had with Gal who was involved in a terrible car incident. Gal’s fate had scarred his daughter Norma (Blanca Suarez) and he remembers how, six years before, Norma had cut all her ties with normalcy. It is because of these events that Robert had come to create Vera as she is now.

The Skin I Live In is a throwback to the weirdly hysterical films that characterised Mr Almodóvar’s early oeuvre. The premise borders on the surreal melodrama while the characters are wacky and sharp, bizarre and psychologically unstable.

Mr Almodóvar’s treading into the horror genre may be a first but he does it with a surgeon’s precision.

In Mr Banderas he has once again found a leading man whom we can appreciate; but even more so in the beautiful Elena Anaya. She is like one of those beautiful Turkish bath paintings that come alive.

As is his style, Mr Almodóvar delights in creating an artistic setting and here this takes the form of the house wher ethe story takes place.

Further boosted by classical music, The Skin I Live In is everything that the 1993’s Boxing Helena had wanted to be but failed to achieve.

Midway through the film, Mr Almodóvar inserts a twist in such an effortless fashion that it will pull the carpet from under the audience with the deftness of a skilled magician.

The end result is a nifty film that sees the director exercising incredible control.

We must reconcile ourselves with what we know about what lies inside the two main characters who seem to be playing out a doomed and tragic duet. The film’s ending is perfect for a tale that is all about revenge and obsession.

The Skin I Live In is an unusual film, for sure, but one that demands to be seen.