The less you know about this film before watching the more fun you'll have.
This film is Almodovar homage to 1960s horror films. Personally I feel the film is actually more SciFi than horror with human-pig skin hybrids that are flame retardant (and also a total red-herring). There's a lot going on, it's almost as if Almodovar had all these great ideas but didn't know what to do with them and put it all in a blender.
The nonlinearity plot is clever because it makes the viewer have feelings for Vera that perhaps they might not have if they knew everything from the start (or perhaps they still would?). Elena Anaya brings an incredible sense of delicateness and fragility but also toughness to the part of Vera. Almodovar is such an experience director that the film looks and feels both beautiful and effortless. Everything looks like it's straight out of Architectural Digest. There's eye-candy aplenty, mostly with Antonio Banderias playing the role of a rich, suave, egotistical, but also dangerously obsessive plastic surgeon. He's so handsome that I'm sure some of the audience will envy the object of his desires, Vera - perhaps that's Almodovar's idea.
The final scene is great. I felt a bit sorry for Vicente though. But I don't feel that sorry because as Spanish horror master Paul Naschy once said "Someone always has to suffer for our pleasures".
This film is Almodovar homage to 1960s horror films. Personally I feel the film is actually more SciFi than horror with human-pig skin hybrids that are flame retardant (and also a total red-herring). There's a lot going on, it's almost as if Almodovar had all these great ideas but didn't know what to do with them and put it all in a blender.
The nonlinearity plot is clever because it makes the viewer have feelings for Vera that perhaps they might not have if they knew everything from the start (or perhaps they still would?). Elena Anaya brings an incredible sense of delicateness and fragility but also toughness to the part of Vera. Almodovar is such an experience director that the film looks and feels both beautiful and effortless. Everything looks like it's straight out of Architectural Digest. There's eye-candy aplenty, mostly with Antonio Banderias playing the role of a rich, suave, egotistical, but also dangerously obsessive plastic surgeon. He's so handsome that I'm sure some of the audience will envy the object of his desires, Vera - perhaps that's Almodovar's idea.
The final scene is great. I felt a bit sorry for Vicente though. But I don't feel that sorry because as Spanish horror master Paul Naschy once said "Someone always has to suffer for our pleasures".