The Skin I Live In

A foreign movie whose original title is: 'La Piel Que Habito'. This movie debuted a couple years ago, but had a pretty soft opening. It fell through the cracks I think and it is a tragedy.

'The Skin I Live In' is a suspenseful story about a plastic surgeon who, after tragedy strikes his family and his wife is horribly burned, becomes obsessed with developing a highly experimental form of skin graft. After years of work, he begins testing on another woman. This woman is moved to his estate during the treatment, and is regarded as a prisoner in solitary confinement due to the severity of her condition and the surgery she undergoes.

'The Skin I Live In' is a masterpiece. The screenplay is incredibly clever, moving, and haunting. The story, which I will not spoil, is such an intense mind-fuck, you will forget that you are reading subtitles. The non-linear plot flows so smoothly and the story is excellently crafted, you really feel for the characters.

As far as acting goes, I just have one question. "Where the hell has this Antonio Banderas been?!" I had been thinking Banderas had retired from being in adult oriented movies and traded over to kids movies, and I would never again see a bad ass Banderas. But this movie let shine a strong ray of hope that he will still be in grown up movies. Since there aren't many characters in this movie, that makes every role that much more important. Not only does Banderas shine, but his opposite, Elena Anaya, delivers a brilliant performance as well.

The cinematography is great as well. The entire color of the film is very muted and dour, a dark feeling matched by the subject matter. The lighting changes from dreary and disparaging to sterile and emotionless.

Final Judgement:

This movie is fantastic, and you will not be disappointed. I will warn you against seeing this movie if you are looking for a light, happy feeling flick, because this will not be that movie. This movie is disturbing, suspenseful, and at points, emotionally draining. This wasn't nominated for an Oscar, was nominated for a Golden Globe, but lost, and that is a catastrophe. This has to be one of the best Spanish movies I have ever seen, up there with 'Pan's Labyrinth' and 'The Orphanage'. This movie, at least for DirecTV users, is available On Demand for those who have Starz. It's not on Netflix at the moment, and only available to purchase on Amazon instant video.

Score: ★★★★★★★★☆☆