The Skin I Live In (2011)
Average Rating: 7.4/10
Reviews Counted: 158
Fresh: 128 | Rotten: 30
The Skin I Live In lacks Almodovar's famously charged romance, replaced with a wonderfully bizarre and unpredictable detour into arthouse ick.
Average Rating: 7.4/10
Critic Reviews: 42
Fresh: 33 | Rotten: 9
The Skin I Live In lacks Almodovar's famously charged romance, replaced with a wonderfully bizarre and unpredictable detour into arthouse ick.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.9/5
User Ratings: 23,874
My Rating
Movie Info
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 a further three 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
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Cast
-
Antonio Banderas
Robert Ledgard -
Elena Anaya
Vera -
Marisa Paredes
Marilia -
Jan Cornet
Vicente -
Roberto Alamo
Zeca -
Eduard Fernández
Fulgencio -
Blanca Suárez
Norma -
Susi Sánchez
Vicente's Mother -
Bárbara Lennie
Cristina -
Fernando Cayo
Doctor -
José Luis Gómez
President of the Biotec...
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The Skin I Live In Trailer & Photos
All Critics (158) | Top Critics (42) | Fresh (131) | Rotten (30) | DVD (7)
There are few filmmakers -- David Lynch comes to mind, Woody Allen -- who have a completely unique way of imprinting a film. Nobody but Pedro Almodóvar could have made The Skin I Live In. And that's high compliment.
Top CriticThese are questions one is left with -- and that's not an entirely satisfying feeling. Yet it's hard not to be drawn into the story, and even more, into the gorgeous storytelling.
Despite its scalpel-like precision, pic falls short of its titular promise, never quite getting under the skin as it should.
Only someone as talented as Almodóvar could have mixed such elements without blowing up an entire movie.
Pedro Almodóvar wows with the meticulous visual design of his films, but sometimes his narrative architecture is every bit as dazzling.
The story has so many twists and turns it's practically writhing, and I'm reluctant to reveal much of it; the movie's power depends on its shock value, and Almodóvar does, indeed, know how to shock.
Pedro Almodovar's The Skin I Live In, a terrific, twisty thriller that is one of the filmmaker's best and one of the year's best films.
It's as disquieting as it is unsatisfying, a slog through gender issues, surgery and violence - sexual and otherwise.
A movie puzzle that confounds and then unnerves with an impact as shocking as any of the most infamous of cinema last-reel shockers
I was agonising over every twist and turn. I was shuffling in my seat. I was feeling physical reactions to the scenes and quite simply I was impressed with Banderas' strikingly nuanced performance under the incredible direction of Almodóvar.
The Skin I Live In lost the shock and awe of the original viewing; but the 2nd time around I found myself disorientated by the depths of the disturbance of Roberto and dizzying journey of Vera. The Skin I Live In is one to own,share and to endure.
Leave it to Pedro Almodovar to figure a uniquely twisted way to unsettle.
With a deliberately preposterous storyline involving burning bodies, evil brothers, rape, suicide, revenge, sexual identity and medical procedure, this is darkly comic arthouse soap - with a tinge of horror - and definitely an acquired taste.
High-art pulp: brazenly kitschy, elegantly creepy, patently ludicrous.
There are two iron wills in this movie. What's shocking is the lengths that each character goes to. A seriously campy tone almost undercuts the seriousness of the story, and it has its fair share of uncomfortable and shocking laughs.
With The Skin I Live In, Almodovar adopts a playfully wicked attitude, similar to the one James Whale used on Bride of Frankenstein.
Although snubbed by the Oscar machine, "The Skin I Live In" is a solid drama-thriller that offers the best contemporary take on the Frankenstein tale that I've seen in a long while.
Almodóvar returns to his horror roots
Not since David Cronenberg have surgery, sex and violence frolicked in the same stained bed so skillfully.
Almodovar has delivered another transformative work that finds his queer sensibility in high, thrilling gear.
This is a horror story only Almodovar could conjure. It's filled with his style of melodrama and love for the disenfranchised, not to mention a seedy undercurrent that is sure to turn off some. A film for strong minds and sturdy hearts.
Combines enough that's genre-friendly and accessible with the trademark style of a truly unique and "artsy" filmmaker.
More than justifies the usual Almodóvar adjectives: 'dark','unusual', 'erotic' and 'twisted'.
The Skin I Live In certainly puts the ! in ALMODOVAR! The Spanish auteur's latest film is particularly melodramatic, bizarre, and visually sumptuous, even by his already heightened standards.
Audience Reviews for The Skin I Live In
Super Reviewer
Super Reviewer
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- Vicente: Why did you shave me?
- Robert Ledgard: That's a good question. [suffocates Vicente with aftershave]
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- Robert Ledgard: But you promised..
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- Norma: Oh boy, what a wonderful day...
- Vicente: Give me all your money, quick!
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- Marilia: The things a madman's love can do...
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- Vicente: I'm high too.
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- Robert Ledgard: [pointing a handgun] Get the hell out of here!
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Latest News on The Skin I Live In
October 14, 2011:
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Foreign Titles
- Die Haut in der ich wohne (DE)
- The Skin I Live In (La piel que habito) (UK)
Pedro Almodovar has always made weird films that challenge traditional conceptions of sexuality and gender with multiple, intersecting characters, but what has been his weakness in my view was the degree to which the stories interconnect to form a fluid narrative or consistent theme. The Skin I Live In is his best film because it has a fantastic, fluid narrative that unfolds deftly. It's full of surprises and the twists come logically and unexpectedly. Disturbing to the core, Almodovar once again seeks to problematize traditional points of view. What's more, I loved his use of "show" details -- actions that characters perform that tell us about their inner life -- and when Robert's daughter climbs in the closet, I couldn't think of a better way to show her devastation.
Antonio Banderas is at his best, evil -- staring over his eyebrows -- when he needs to be and even charming at times, and one of my favorite Spanish actresses, Elena Anaya, gives an astounding performance.
Overall, if you only see one Almodovar film, make it this one -- just don't bring your sensibilities or the children.