Pedro Almodóvar has some talent. Anyone else who tried to
make a film like The Skin I Live In(2011)would have treaded heavily, fumbled and
fallen with the oddness of it all. Antonio Banderas plays a brilliant plastic
surgeon, with about as much baggage as Lady Gaga on a world tour, who invents and
prefects an artificial skin with the aid of his human test subject. This is really as much of the plot that can be
given away without ruining a fine piece of cinema. The mystery to the story
that opens up around the audience is a stroke of genius.
Almodovar has been quoted as saying that The Skin I Live In
is “a horror story without screams or frights”. And my did he get it right.
Maybe a little slow to start but once it gets going, it really gets going. Banderas
is the linchpin in this tale, drawing the viewer in with a superb turn as the
manic, once loving, surgeon. It could have easily all gone so wrong, a story verging
on wacky and distasteful, it is beautifully played out with Almodovar at the
helm. A true horror story that will
linger in your subconscious for quite some time after viewing. If you missed it
in the cinema first time round, get it on D.V.D now. You won’t be disappointed.
XXX
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