The Skin I Live In

Another middling Almodóvar. Not that The Skin I Live In sits within his normal range of films, it's a rather ambitious mix of thriller, mystery, drama and even minor horror elements, but in the end it's still Almodóvar directing, and his old-fashioned style doesn't do justice to the themes here.

The first hour is a mess of different timelines, rest assured that the second hour clears up most of the confusion. The film revolves around a genius plastic surgeon responsible for an important scientific breakthrough. It's revealed early on that his ethics are pretty loose though, which isn't even taking into account the bigger reveal halfway through.

The story is quite disturbing, but performances are poor (Banderas in particular), the cinematography is either too static or not refined enough and the soundtrack is tedious. There are traces of a fun and interesting film here, but they're squandered by a director who is a complete mismatch for the film he tried to make.