Live Flesh

REVIEW
Telling a good story rather than get carried away with plotting, Almodóvar deliberately paces this sexy thriller to allow the audience to get inside the heads of the characters and understand their crazy behavior. Victor (Rabal) is a handsome jailbird who reunites with the people who had him wrongly incarcerated. He falls into bed with Clara (Molina), the wife of Sancho (Sancho), whose old partner is David (Bardem), the cop crippled on the night Victor's fate was sealed. As Victor tries to exact revenge, naturally, all hell breaks loose. Although the plot could function as a bedroom farce, Almodóvar wisely milks it for its palpable sex and suspense. The result is a more mature work that may disappoint the bad-boy director's hard-core fans, but will also earn him new ones. (Spanish with English subtitles)