My Review of "The Skin I Live In"

The Skin I live in is kind of a creepy thriller with a lot of mystery involved. Going into this movie you'll probably want as little information as possible so I'll try to make this review as vague as possible. This way you'll understand what's coming but not know too much that it'll spoil the insanely crazy surprises.

The movie is focused on a gifted plastic surgeon, Robert and his patient, Vera. We don't know anything about anyone but we know that this is a very odd situation. Robert is going about his life talking about miraculous new skin revelations but are these skin revelations a result of him testing on Vera? Who is Vera and how did Robert and her get to meet?

All of these questions will eventually be revealed but in a very disjointed and almost trippy kind of way. The movie at times will jump from time periods to explain some of the backstory behind our characters. In doing so they play around with the audience's emotions.

There were several times when I thought Robert was a good guy and then switched to thinking he was a bad guy. This movie does a pretty good job at keeping us guessing as the characters have moral dilemmas running through their heads a mile a minute.

You'll also have to take into account that this movie is all in Spanish. Some people can't stand sub-titles but this is probably the only way for English viewers to see this movie as it was filmed in Spain. I felt that there was a bit of cultural differences between Spain and North America. In this movie, it felt as though Spain has a very sexually charged culture. There were a few scenes I felt quite uncomfortable with. I was thinking, since everyone feels so natural in this movie doing certain uncomfortable things in the movie it might be a socially acceptable thing there? There are certain sexual scenes that were very unpleasant to watch in this movie so be forewarned about that as well.

This movie was also released back in 2011 so I think it was both progressive and archaic in their thoughts about certain subject matters that they delve into. We've advanced a lot in our knowledge of medicine and psychological well being since then and so you'll have to take that into consideration as well while watching this. It is a product of its time and you'll have to through logic out the window to keep up with this movie.

At the heart of the movie they wanted to psychologically mess around with you and they indeed do this to you here. I was wondering what the characters were thinking because they wouldn't choose the conventional routes that you'd think that they'd take at times. If you like your emotions and thoughts challenged while you're watching a movie this is a pretty fun one to watch. There were many moments where I was at the edge of my seat anticipating on what was going to happen next.

Visually this movie is actually quite beautiful. Though, you can tell that this is a lower budget movie I still thought the art direction of this film was quite appealing. It's one of the reasons this movie gets an extra point.

Overall, I had fun with this one, albeit an uncomfortable ride. There are a few scenes in this movie that made me extremely uncomfortable and antsy. At times it was like watching a beautiful trainwreck. I couldn't keep my eyes off of the movie while I was squirming around in my chair. I have to give this movie a 7 out of 10. This is definitely not for the weak of heart.