Film Review: "The Skin I Live In" ("La piel que habito") (2011).

From the director of All About My Mother and Broken Embraces comes The Skin I Live In (La piel que habito). This Spanish psychological thriller drama film adapted and directed by Pedro Almodóvar, and based on Thierry Jonquet's novel Tarantula (Mygale). Ever since his wife was burned in a car crash, Dr. Robert Ledgard, an eminent plastic surgeon, has been interested in creating a new skin with which he could have saved her. After twelve years, he manages to cultivate a skin that is a real shield against every assault. In addition to years of study and experimentation, Robert needed three more things: no scruples, an accomplice and a human guinea pig. Scruples were never a problem. Marilia, the woman who looked after him from the day he was born, is his most faithful accomplice. And as for the human guinea pig...

In 2001, Almodóvar read Jonquet's novel, and what attracted him to the novel was "the magnitude of Doctor Ledgard's vendetta". This became the core of the adaptation, which over time moved further and further from the original plot of the novel. Whilst penning the script, Almodóvar was inspired by Georges Franju's Eyes Without a Face and the thriller films of Fritz Lang. In 2002, Almodóvar announced the project with Antonio Banderas and Penélope Cruz in mind to star. By late August 2010, Banderas, Elena Anaya, Marisa Paredes, Jan Cornet, and Roberto Álamo were cast. The film marked the first collaboration of Almodóvar and Banderas in twenty-one years, their last collaboration was on Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (¡Átame!) (1990). At the same time, with a budget of €10 million, principal photography commenced and wrapped in late November. Filming took place in Madrid, Toledo, and throughout Galicia, Spain. After a few days of shooting, Almodóvar had a conversation with Banderas in which he told Banderas that he needed to drop all of his ticks as an actor, because the director wanted a really restrained character and the actor was playing him in a more typical psycho way.

The film stars Banderas, Anaya, Paredes, Cornet, and Álamo. Perhaps the film's greatest truth comes from the performances given by the cast, especially from Banderas and Anaya as their two characters. They reminded me of the scene in Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!, where the two leads were watching a movie in production: one notes that the film is more a love story than a horror story. Replies the movie's director, "Sometimes the two are indistinguishable."

The film is a deranged, provocative romance, which somehow manages to generate a real sense of affection amid the surgical equipment and costumes. Almodovar's polarities are so perfectly lined up in opposition to my own that it is quite possible for one of his movies to shoot right through my brain without striking a single cell. Though this controversial film about romantic, sado-masochistic love in the hetero world is weak and ultimately disappointing, it's still worth seeing for understanding Almodovar's evolution.

Simon says The Skin I Live In (La piel que habito) receives: