Starring: Antonio Banderas, Elena Anaya, Marisa Paredes
Director: Pedro Almodovar
Category: III (Spanish)
Towards the end of The Skin I Live In, one of the film's main characters speaks about the essence of survival in circumstances that demand individuals to adapt and change. The key, he says, lies in sustaining 'a place inside you that you can take refuge, a place that no one else can destroy or have access to' - a moral of sorts, perhaps, of a film revolving around a plastic surgeon's near-pathological obsession with physical transformation through an artificial skin he has invented.
The remark, however, could also be taken as Pedro Almodovar's own proclamation about his art, with his latest film revisiting some of the themes he has frequented in his 31-year career.
Once one of the most exciting and controversial filmmakers around, the 62-year-old's reputation has been dented by a handful of comparatively underwhelming films in recent years.
What unites these failures is his inability to graft his larger philosophical concerns with a gripping narrative driven by convincing, empathetic characters (which he did produce with Talk to Her in 2002 and Volver in 2006).
In The Skin I Live In, however, Almodovar has managed to combine a decent (albeit strange) story with the issues that have fascinated him throughout his creative life. Perhaps it's due to The Skin I Live In being an adaptation of French crime novelist Thierry Jonquet's Tarantula.