Plastic surgeon Robert Ledgard (Antonio Banderas) is a
genius in his field, and after his wife was horrifically burned in a car crash,
he attempts to create skin that is impervious to damage. Do not read ahead,
there are going to be so many spoilers and really, you just have to watch this
beauty of a film.
The sequence in which we are presented with the story is perfect.
We see Robert with his patient, Vera (Elena Anaya), and we are shown how strong
her skin is now (he burns her and yet she doesn't feel it and her skin is undamaged). She is kept in a locked room and she only sees Robert,
interaction with anyone else takes place over an intercom and her food is
delivered by a dumb waiter. She has covered the wall in writing, marking the days
of her stay like a prisoner. And that definitely seems to be what she is. When
Robert comes to see her she says they should be together and it would seem like
she has Stockholm Syndrome, but that is not necessarily true upon seeing the
rest of the film. We are shown years before, he saved his wife despite her
extensive injuries but when she saw a reflection of herself she jumped from a
window and died in front of her young daughter, Norma (Blanca Suárez). She suffers
psychological issues, presumably from this event, and is cared for in a
psychiatric ward. Her doctor assumes that she is well enough to go outside and
so she accompanies her father to a party. However, at the party she is raped and
her psychological trauma worsens, leading her to kill herself in the same
manner as her mother.
The man
who raped her, Vicente (Jan Cornet), is kidnapped by Robert and kept in his
basement for a long time. Robert comes to him, shaves his facial hair, drugs
him and takes him to the operating theatre he has in his house where Vicente undergoes sex reassignment surgery and his name is changed to Vera. I am unsure
of the correct pronouns to use here (I know I used female pronouns earlier but that's only because the facts of the story are obviously not clear from the beginning) but since ‘Vera’ did not choose to have the
operation and seemed horrified at the changes, I will use male
pronouns (if that’s wrong I am happy to change them). Breasts develop and his
voice becomes more feminine, and with Robert’s skin project, he becomes ‘perfect’.
The face, because his face was all remodelled, resembles that of Robert’s late
wife and this seems to have quite the psychological hold over him. After his
brother breaks in and rapes Vera, Robert kills him and becomes intimate with
Vera, calling him ‘my love.’ He promises to stay with him and Robert promises
not to keep him locked in a room anymore but when the opportunity comes, he
kills Robert and returns to his mother.
At the
beginning of the film, Robert is giving a lecture on facial reconstruction of
burn victims and he says that our face identifies us, it is essentially who we
are. It’s never clearer how much he believes this than when he looks at Vera
and only sees his wife. He doesn’t see that Vera was the man who raped his
daughter, it’s as if who Vera is doesn’t matter, it’s who he looks like that
does. For a plastic surgeon to put so much emphasis on the external aspects of
a person isn’t necessarily surprising but what is surprising is the importance
of who this person actually is and that it has little impact on Robert. What he
sees is someone who looks just like the woman he loved and that is all he sees.
I think that’s fascinating. Do we really put so much importance on how people
look? If, for instance, you woke up and your mother had a different face, would
that impact on how you felt about her? What about your partner? Or your child?
When I
was younger I experienced something similar to what is known as ‘The Capgras
Delusion’. I say something similar because the experience was only really with
my father and it only lasted when I was younger, it doesn’t happen now. People
with the Capgras Delusion believe that someone close to them has been replaced
by an imposter who looks exactly identical to the person they are meant to be.
It is frightening and I’m thankful it only lasted for a little time. I only
mention it because it seems relevant to the ideas thrown up by the film. The
person I thought was an imposter looked just like my father and yet I felt that
it wasn’t him. There wasn’t a connection between what he looked like and who he
was. In the film, the connection between who Vera looked like and who Vera
actually was was lost. And instead who Vera was became entwined with who he
looked like. Faces are important to how we operate in our lives and this film
explores the extremes of that importance.
What an
amazing film. Antonio Banderas was wonderful in this character, he managed to
give off the appearance of someone calm and composed while all the while he’s
going through some serious psychological issues. The film was beautifully shot
and each scene was subtle and powerful.
10/10
