The Skin I Live In
Sony Pictures Classics | Release Date: October 14, 2011 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
70
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 37 Critic Reviews
Positive:
26
Mixed:
11
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierOct 14, 2011
Almodovar makes some missteps in his icky mélange of melodrama and mischief, but the end result is playfully devious. Read full review
60
Time OutJoshua RothkopfOct 11, 2011
You never feel the burn in The Skin I Live In, certainly not the way you do in an immortal shocker like "Eyes Without a Face." It's almost as if Almodóvar wanted to reach out into a gory genre, but couldn't do so without wearing prissy gloves. Read full review
60
VarietyJustin ChangOct 10, 2011
Much as he did with Ruth Rendell's "Live Flesh," Almodovar has taken an ice-cold psychological thriller, penned by a novelist of far less humanistic temperament, and performed some stylistic surgery of his own, adding broad comic relief, overripe melodrama, outrageous asides and zesty girl-power uplift. Read full review
58
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallNov 30, 2011
Almodóvar dives into perversity, practically daring the audience not to follow. The Skin I Live In is a mediocre addition to his resume, yet for fans, even bad Almodóvar is better than none at all. Read full review
50
Orlando SentinelRoger MooreNov 16, 2011
It's as disquieting as it is unsatisfying, a slog through gender issues, surgery and violence - sexual and otherwise. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Stephen ColeOct 28, 2011
Though beautiful to look at and graced with moments of ticklish camp, The Skin I Live In is also sluggish, arbitrarily conceived and, especially in its sagging middle, unaccountably dull. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderJ.R. JonesOct 20, 2011
The real problem, however, is the male protagonist and his foul inner life: Almodovar's impressive recent work has focused on the rich emotionality of women, and though the film provides an interesting take on gender and submission, this sort of nastiness just isn't his thing. Read full review
50
Village VoiceKarina LongworthOct 11, 2011
The film deflates in its final third, with crude matter-of-fact set pieces, dumb explanatory psychology, and bursts of intentional camp overwhelming and canceling out the unmoored creepiness. Read full review
50
ObserverRex ReedOct 11, 2011
Surreal but disappointingly drab, it's still not the best Almodovar in years. Despite the usual Almodovar plot twists, kinky sex and themes of sexual identity reversal, gender bending and mad desire, the cult auteur has gone off the tracks and lost his compass. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterKirk HoneycuttOct 10, 2011
Like many lab experiments, this melodramatic hybrid makes for an unstable fusion. Only someone as talented as Almodóvar could have mixed such elements without blowing up an entire movie. Read full review
50
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinOct 10, 2011
It's the only Almodóvar movie in which feeling, emotional or sexual, doesn't suffuse the imagery and hold the ramshackle melodrama together. Read full review
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