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Friday, October 14, 2011
MOVIE REVIEW
The Skin I Live In (La Piel Que Habito)
A Second Skin, And A Second Chance At
Vengeance
Elena Anaya as Vera and Antonio Banderas as Dr. Robert Ledgard in Pedro
Almodóvar's horror-thriller "The Skin I Live
In".
Sony Pictures Classics
by
Omar P.L. Moore/PopcornReel.com
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Friday,
October 14, 2011
Plastic surgeon Dr. Robert Ledgard (Antonio Banderas) has lost his wife in a
car crash, burned to a cinder. We don't see this but we see it all over
the face of a man who has been haunted for it. He makes a skin that will
be impenetrable to any injury or burning. He experiments with patients to
test this skin out for effect.
For weeks Dr. Ledgard has been gazing at Vera (Elena Anaya), a woman in a fleshy
body suit whom he's kept imprisoned in his home the way Julian Sands kept
Sherilyn Fenn captive in "Boxing Helena". Beauty is only skin deep,
supposedly, and this realization may be lost on the good doctor in Pedro
Almodóvar's twisted, topsy-turvy horror-thriller, "The Skin I Live In", which
opened today in New York City and Los Angeles.
Mr. Almodóvar and Mr. Banderas reunite 21 years after "Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!"
and the latter is at his best in an intense, commanding performance as Ledgard,
even if the former isn't at his apex with "Skin". The film is a muted,
less colorful and engaging film than the director's more familiar (and greater)
work. What's noteworthy about "The Skin I Live In" is its precision and
clinical approach to procedure, specifically in Dr. Ledgard's everyday
work. Routine is still routine, even if it isn't. There's less
comedy and poignancy in the film's story-telling (based on the book Mygale
by Thierry Jonquet) and while its random episodes blast off, there's a
discipline that keeps much of "The Skin I Live In" firmly on the ground.
Dr. Ledgard is Lovecraft in a funny, ironic way, a Re-Animator or Frankenstein
creator who gives birth to rejuvenated beings. He's a man from a family
whose tree has been corrupted by fate and much malevolence. We learn that
something horrible has happened to his only daughter and then something happens
within him. There's some underlying comedy about doctors in several subtle
moments, including in a conversation Dr. Ledgard has with a biotechnology
executive (José Luis Gómez of
"Broken Embraces".)
As with a number of Almodóvar films, "The Skin I Live In" has plenty of
Hitchcockian flourishes and combines the madness of its characters and events
with Eden-like corruptions of Adam and Eve, staged in ways only Mr. Almodóvar
can. Told out of sequence in some places, "Skin" has memorable players,
including a man in a tiger's suit who reunites with his mother. Ms. Anaya
("Point Blank") plays Vera as frozen captive, arresting on occasion, near
translucent in others, in a physically demanding bit of work. When the
film comes together out of its pieces and episodes Ms. Anaya's work is stronger
and better than it first appears.
The director loves to investigate touch, perception and image in plain, eloquent
ways. Projection of image, whether contained on a large screen or running
unabashed, always ends up being larger than life in Mr. Almodóvar's wicked
theater. The engine of the craziness that ensues in "The Skin I Live In"
is geared by the ultimate adrenaline: love. The overall result is a cool,
jagged film which left me less satisfied than I'd expected. At times "The
Skin I Live In" is sharp, piercing and almost as gloomy as "La Mala Educacion"
(Bad Education). Layered and detailed, "Skin" is a film that requires at
least two viewings to get a true sense of its state of mind.
Is Dr. Ledgard fulfilled by his experimentations on patients? He's
probably tortured by them, and there's scarcely any joy he appears to derive
from them. He's driven by a need to make things right, to fix what nature
(or rather its corruption) has destroyed. Sometimes experiments work in
unintended ways. Dr. Ledgard seems not to learn a key lesson: a skin may
protect you, but memories will always burn through.
With: Marisa Paredes, Jan Cornet, Roberto Álamo, Blanca Suárez, Bárbara Lennie,
Fernando Cayo, Eduárd Fernández.
"The Skin I Live In" is rated R by the Motion Picture Association Of America for
disturbing violent content including sexual
assault, strong sexuality, graphic nudity, drug use and language.
The film is in the Spanish language with English subtitles.
The film's running time is one hour and 57 minutes.
COPYRIGHT 2011. POPCORNREEL.COM. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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