The Skin I Live In (2011)

In my mind, Pedro Almodovar is a film maker who focuses on what is odd in people.  He tells stories about people who live on the fringes of society, people we might not otherwise know or meet.  This movie moves well beyond the usual perversions and vibrating sexuality that Almodovar is known for into the realm of medical science fiction and psychopathy.

Dr. Robert Legard is the main attraction.  He is aptly played by Antonio Banderas, with just the right mixture of coldness and hardness that makes you feel like if he were to make it out of here alive he would be able to stand trial).  He is a gifted plastic surgeon who has been involved in developing artificial human skin in his home laboratory (the parallels to a 21st century Dr. Frankenstein are purposeful, I think), and he has operated a private clinic on the grounds of his isolated estate.

Early on in the film, which is cinematically exactly what you would expect from Almodovar--lush, bright colors, and nothing out of place, not one false note in the scenes and how they are filmed--we meet Vera (Elena Anaya).  She is angry, making angry art, dressed in a weird head to toe body suit, and pretty soon we figure out why--she is a prisoner.  Exactly why she is a prisoner we do not find out until much later in the film, but we know right from the beginning that all is not well with Dr. Legard.  It turns out his wife and his daughter have killed themselves, for very different reasons, and if we were being generous we might say it has unhinged him, but I don't think that was the first blow to his sanity.  In any case, the story is very told, and no matter how creepy everyone in it is, we do want to know what happens to them all in the end.  The film maker once again does an amazing job.