Let's begin by noting that this is an Almodovar film--that is, it was made by Almodovar. This is not the sexually charge celebration of life and femininity that we are accustomed to and it will certainly have its critics. As always, his film has visual style to spare, but this is a trip into the darkest, most macabre cranny of this genius's mind.
Antonio Banderas plays Robert Ledgard, who is a brilliant, world-renowned plastic surgeon who has spent several years perfecting a type of synthetic skin, mutated from the cells of a pig, which can be used to create new faces for burn victims. A terrible accident some years before sparked this quest, but the questionable ethical implications of this has made the medical community angry. Robert insists that he has only been experimenting on mice, but I'm sure that the flawless young girl locked in his house would say otherwise.
The story of Vera Cruz (Elena Anaya) is shown after she and Robert's maid and mother (Marisa Paredes) are violently attacked by a feral tiger. The cameras that Robert uses to watch her every move show a lonely, desperate woman who scrawls on her walls, practices yoga, smokes opium, and makes horribly deformed sculptures of people's faces using double sided tape and strips of her dresses which she never wears (preferring instead to don a flesh-colored body suit). She is violent, cunning, manipulative and at the same time incredibly alluring. Her porcelain face and black, liquid eyes contain the connection between Robert's past and his present obsession. What could possibly be strong enough and horrible enough to drive a brilliant doctor completely insane, to kidnap and keep hostage a young woman, to graft skin on to her and then sexually obsess over her?
There are twists in this film that I would bank money on you wouldn't guess. Almodovar again proves his flair for insane concepts and brilliant execution. As always his film doesn't consistently make sense or prove to have a point, but what I like about this is precisely that. When I watch one of his films I see exaggerated characters in fantastic situations that contain a plot but are more like clips of dreams sewn together. He writes from his gut as opposed to his head which adds a certain vivacity and almost a certain level of suspense to find out what will next be served.
This film in particular has that suspension as it is something of a thriller as well. As the pieces fall into place and the madness exposes itself in its true form there can be no denying that this is a taught, expertly made, and briskly paced movie. It is supremely entertaining if incredibly disturbing. The image of the tiger attack when his mouth is on the mouth of Vera still haunts me.
I am not completely convinced of this film, though. I think that it might be deep-seeded biases of my love for the traditionally "Almodovar" films. This is a very, very well done film in comparison with others that have come out this year, but I am not sure that it is as good in comparison with himself. I applaud and respect him for exploring and experimenting with his medium, but I do not know if I like the direction that he has been trending towards. Another more recent film of his that I had issues with was Talk to Her which also had duplicitous characters and ulterior motives. I don't know if think the nice and sympathetic way that he presented those characters was better than the depraved, base ones of this film.
I suppose this may be a turning point in his career and we may be seeing much more of the same from him. If that's the case and if I am going to have to get used to it then I will judge it for what it is, and that is a very beautifully done movie.
3/4
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