On the couch

DVD REVIEW

The Skin I Live In *****
Directed by: Pedro Almodovar
Starring: Antonio Banderas, Elena Anaya, Marisa Paredes, Jan Cornet

Final Destination 5 ***
Directed by: Steven Quale
Starring: Nicholas D’Agosto, Emma Bell, Miles Fisher, David Koechner

There’s a bit about half way through The Skin I Live In that will leave your jaw on the floor. You’ll want to be careful of this because it won’t just loll around your clavicle like some socks on a washing line, it will literally detach itself and plunk onto the floor in front of you like the remains of the Sunday roast.
Obviously having some Dettol and gaffer tape handy for clean up and repair are essential before pressing play.
Based on the book Tarantula by Thierry Jonquet, Pedro Almodovar’s latest flick is an engrossing (and occasionally borderline grotesque) thriller with hints of science fiction and horror thrown into to add spice to an already heavily seasoned fare.
It stars Antonio Banderas as brilliant surgeon Robert Ledgard, who is obsessed with creating a form of burn-proof artificial skin. He also happens to have a beautiful young woman, Vera (Elena Anaya), held captive in his remote estate/research facility where (if that weren’t enough) he also seems to be involved in some other iffy escapades.
As with all the best stories, however, revelations about the past radically change our appreciation of the present. As Almodovar’s flick bounces back and forth through time – both through dreams and straight flashbacks – the tragedy of Legard’s life and the impetus for his research are revealed to the aforementioned spontaneous facial dislocation.
The best part about the “grand reveal” is that it’s not a grand reveal at all. It’s a gradual accumulation of shreds of evidence pieced together over the various storylines that finally coalesces into a “Holy [insert preferred expletive here]!” moment.
Then you get to watch the second half of the movie from an entirely different perspective and revel in how the story doesn’t just maintain its grim momentum, but seems to become even more enthralling and macabre.
To say too much would steal some of the fun of having the story wash over you and second, third and fourth guessing yourself about what might happen next.
Antonio Banderas is fantastic as the smooth yet slightly creepy doctor and he is ably matched by Anaya and Marisa Paredes as the doctor’s house keeper, surrogate mother and life-long confidante Marilia.
An absolute triumph of an unnerving, creepy, thoroughly enjoyable thriller, The Skin I Live In will grab you by the eyeballs and wrangle your will for every one of its 117 minutes. Enjoy it.
(As with all Almodovar films, The Skin I Live In is in Spanish and subtitled.)
From a different… how to say this delicately… cinematic school to The Skin I Live In, comes Final Destination 5, the (presumably) terminal episode in the death-dodging series.
As with all Final Destination flicks, FD5’s set-up involves one of the characters having a premonition of a massive calamity just minutes before it occurs. When a handful of lucky punters manage to avoid their fate, Death takes it upon itself to track them down and balance the books in the messiest, most cartoonish manner possible.
In an unlikely turn of events, the fifth Destination actually turns out to be one of the best, eschewing the comedy that has crept into the last few movies and going back to the series’ horror roots. Tension and moments of shouting at the screen are the order of the day again as the Grim Reaper takes care of business.
One sequence in particular, the first death, is an eyewatering affair involving a gymnast, a balance bar and the threat on stepping on a screw that is drawn out to a brilliantly excruciating extent. The inevitable conclusion will have your toes curling and popcorn flying for all the right reasons.
The one missing element is the faceless cast which, with the exception of the tragically underused David Koechner, make so little of an impression that it’s hard to care if or why they’re about to meet their maker. Given it’s a Final Destination it’s only a minor quibble as the film’s real star are Mousetrap-style set-ups for the fatalities and in that respect, FD5 is very well served indeed.