Banderas settles into the dark character of Dr. Ledgard with a stillness and apparent ease that gave me the chills I left the movie theater wondering if it worth it.

Almodóvar has a body of work as rigorously personal as any out there, and, even with its flaws, he wears this latest Skin rather well.

Despite the typically invigorating sense of line and framing, The Skin I Live In withholds the director's customary satisfactions and affirmations. The result is a saga of obsession that, in its saturnine undertone, maintains a hard-to-enjoy integrity.

Like the lovely Vera, the film offers cool, attractive surfaces, but the secret behind the woman and her world she inhabits will chill you to the bone.