To me, this movie is perfection.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

There are too many thrillers that want to be sexy and dramatic and stylish and smart, but with great disappointment, those "ands" turn into italicized "ors", as few artistic talents are capable of such an intricate juggling act. One too many Basic Instincts walk out the door all dressed down in crotchless interrogations with little value to be held in the long run. Some directors are so self-conscious that they feel the need to grab a megaphone and loudly inform us that, that's right, they are aiming to be sexy and dramatic and stylish and smart. If only those damn "ors" would get out of the way for once.Few filmmakers, however, have the gutsy panache of Pedro Almodóvar, who possibly was the result of a lab experiment involving Alfred Hitchcock, Douglas Sirk, Brian De Palma, and the wardrobe of Endora from Bewitched. His films range from candy colored to smokily noiry, sometimes carrying the weight of a Technicolor Bringing Up Baby or a severely darkened vintage women's picture. Though slightly flagrant, his projects maintain the professionalism of an auteur who simply knows what the hell he's doing.Take a film like Live Flesh, which isn't quite sexy enough, soapy enough, violent enough, yet still manages to feel distinctly, no pun-intended, fleshed out. It's subdued, but it's carefully subdued. If we had the same old X-rated Sirk stuff like usual, we'd surely be tripping in a David LaChapelle styled hallucination. This time around, Almodóvar fabricates a complicated story of revenge, steamy trysts and deadly misunderstandings that hit all the right notes, even if those notes are all sharped and flatted; yet, it's his most mature film.The movie begins in 1970 with a theatrical birth in the back of a city bus; being welcomed into the world is Victor Plaza, the son of a prostitute (Penélope Cruz). Jump 20 years into the future: Victor (Liberto Rabal) is meeting Elena (Francesca Neri), a drug addict, for an impromptu date after hooking up a week previously. Elena was in the mood for a one-night stand, not a courtship — when Victor shows up to her apartment, she flies into a rage, threatening to shoot him in a fashion only Loretta Young could top. They get into a scuffle, leaving Elena unconscious while the gun flies out of her hands and accidentally fires.The downstairs neighbor hears, and, concerned, calls the police. The cops who arrive, the alcoholic, reckless Sancho (Jose Sancho) and the more proper David (Javier Bardem) attempt to calm the scene. Cut to yet another scuffle, David is shot in the back, paralyzed, while Victor is sent to prison for the next four years. But when he is released, he finds that David and Elena have married, leading to a series of events that could only be found in a classy telenovela.No matter how breathy and melodramatically enhanced the plot may at first sound, it is surely one of Almodóvar's most toned down films, both in terms of style and personality. Gone are the neons, artificial sets and delightfully wacky side-characters; gone is the tongue-in-cheek restlessness that made his films better-than-average Hollywood homages that were far too good to simply be called homages. In Live Flesh, you take him seriously, viewing him as a director who has had plenty of fun in the past but wants to make something as substantial as his peers. Looking back, the film marked a turn in his career, shifting towards heavyweights like All About My Mother in 1999 and Talk to Her in 2002.Not to suggest that Live Flesh is sapped of any pleasures. The storyline is pleasingly hammy, with touches of unexpected realisms like wheelchair basketball and domestic abuse, and the performances are finely tuned. Even better is the cinematography (clearly influenced by Almodóvar himself), which hangs onto the bodies of the actors like a fixated Michelangelo; whether they're silhouetted, in the nude, or clothed in cheetah prints, there is an added lustiness that heightens the frequent sexual tensions the film constantly revisits. Live Flesh is a sumptuously shot throwback of a romantic thriller, evidence of a director with pop arted ambitions taking a risky turn that pays off.

Victor, the son of a prostitute, tries to hook up with Elena, a druggie with whom he'd had a previous tryst (his first). She resists, the cops are called, and there's a standoff between Victor and policemen David and Sancho. There's a struggle, and a gun is fired, leaving David paralyzed and sending Victor to jail.When Victor gets out of jail, his mind is on bitter revenge, especially after he discovers that Elena, now clean and sober, has married the invalid David, who's now a paralympic basketball star. Victor gets a job working at the orphanage funded and operated by Elena (but he's not stalking her, no) and begins to romance Clara, the battered wife of Sancho.Each of the five characters, unavoidably intertwined, is complex and morally ambiguous. What are Victor's true intentions? What, even more importantly, are his capabilities? Is Sancho properly haunted by his treatment of Clara and of that fateful night that brought him, David, and Victor together? If Clara does leave Sancho, where will she turn - or is she simply another turn-the-cheek spouse? Does David have a sense of moral superiority because he no longer has use of his lower limbs and therefore has suffered more than most people? And which is stronger, Elena's lust or her loyalty? The quintet, whose lives were forever changed that one night, find themselves drawn back together in a web of intrigue of their own design. All of the actors are fantastic, particularly Francesca Neri, as Elena, and Liberto Rabal, as Victor. The on screen chemistry among all five leads is palpable; no one feels they were just dropped into the movie indiscriminately. Pedro Almodovar's complicated tale is never preachy, and none of the characters are stereotypical. Not all cops are noble, not all drug addicts are irredeemable, not all orphanage operators are perfect, and not all criminals are despicable. Pretty obvious stuff in the real world, but in the land of movies characters are typically painted with as broad a brush as possible in order to appeal to as wide an audience as possible. The movie is tense without veering toward melodrama, and although it begins rather slowly, the final twenty minutes or so are unsettling, nerve-wracking suspense. I defy you to sit complacently while Elena approaches Victor's barrio apartment.

Having had sex with Elena the week before, Victor returns to her flat to try and see her again. However Elena was high when it happened and has no memory of it and no interest in refreshing her memory, but when Victor refuses to leave they start to fight and Elena pulls a gun, which goes off when Victor knocks it away. The police are called and David and his bitter, drunkard partner Sancho respond. A struggle ensues after a brief standoff and while Victor and Sancho wrestle on the floor, the gun goes off and David is hit. Four years later Victor is released from prison, David is in a wheelchair and has married a clean Elena while Sancho is still trying to keep his relationship with wife Carla together. Victor's release brings these individuals back into contact and unleashes the emotions of that night again.Having just watched Volver and found it to be slightly below the standards of many of Almodóvar's other films, I decide to revisit Live Flesh. Aside from the opening cliché, this film is mostly free of his comic backdrops and the touches of absurd melodrama that often accompany some of his more exaggerated characters (this isn't a criticism so much as an observation). Here the film moves quickly from Victor's birth into the fateful event that sees him jailed and we find ourselves in a serious story that is well delivered. That the narrative is unpredictable and perhaps a tad unlikely is testimony to the realism in the characters because their emotions and motivations within this mix of guilt, hate and regret are contradictory and complex – just as they would be in real life. But yet somehow Almodóvar holds it together and makes it engaging and, amazingly, convincing. I want to talk about how he turns this story into a tale I believed in but somehow he does; perhaps because he keeps it so raw and intense throughout, infecting even the sex with the emotions that exist within each character so that even those acts are borne of so much more than desire.Almodóvar also draws impressive performances from his cast which is a great help in pulling off the intensity of the tale. Cruz will be the name everyone knows but she only has a tiny role to play. It is hard to pick one stand out performance from Bardem, Neri and Rabal because the three of them are so convincing and seem to have totally engaged with their parts despite some of the actions being hard to accept on paper. Molina and Sancho are both good but their material is on the edge of the film and they aren't given the same opportunity to explore.Overall this is an impressive film that is raw and intense to the point that it compensates for the stretches within the plot. I can see why some viewers dislike it because it does take some swallowing but it is the impassioned and convincing delivery from director and actors that makes it as engaging as it is.

Pedro Almodóvar changed the way of making cinema in Spain; and doing it, he has impressed movie watchers around the world. You have seen his movies; they are a mix of cruelty that includes honesty and passion. Not honesty in Almodovar's characters, but in the way they are written, showing a tough reality. About passion, well, it occupies a place in every person, but is not always shown; Almodóvar takes care of that.He introduces you to the characters in the story, then he starts to develop a plot that you're going to see, even if it is predictable. Víctor (Liberto Rabal) has lost, or not, his virginity with one woman (older than him). He's not an expert when it comes to casual sex, but she wants to see this woman again, and doesn't understand why she acts like she didn't care what happened. The thing is he doesn't know she does it every week. Then we see David (Javier Bardem) and Sancho (José Sancho) working in their car. They are cops. David is honest and professional, Sancho is alcoholic and incontrollable; his wife, Clara (Ángela Molina), cheats him with another man. Sancho loves her, but beats her and keeps her locked in the house. The one who connects them all is Elena. Víctor fights with her, the police arrives, someone is shot and we see a frame that shows the movie some years later. The person who was shot is David, who walks (well, he doesn't walk) in a wheel-chair. David saved Elena's life; they're married. Víctor is getting out of jail; he shot David. Sancho is in the same situation with his wife. Now Víctor is angry, and plans his revenge; eventually he meets Clara, and follows Elena, and everything is connected again, until the end. Javier Bardem is excellent as David. He can cry while he talks and convince you that he is suffering. He is the finest Spanish actor, and it was wonderful to see him fighting against his character's decisions to do the things he has to. Francesca Neri didn't seem Spanish while I was watching the film. She isn't, but she has the looks of a "femme fatally", and that was perfect for her role, which connected everything and had the strongest lines. José Sancho gives a good support as Sancho, reaching the extremes with his face. His character is doomed, because what happens to him now is not going to stop, and the worst part is that he knows it. Ángela Molina doesn't have the chance to shine, but still does a decent work, with what she has got. She can't be having sex with one only man, and she shows it. Liberto Rabal doesn't show much acting talent, he's not the mos experienced in the cast, but somehow, when he talks, he seems not right, but perfect, for his role. Listen to him at the end and you'll see. Almovodar is gifted and he proves it in each frame of this tale. You need to look at every part of the shot to see the details he is giving to the piece. Look at the sexual scenes; the balance he achieves: it's not so strong, but not soft either. It's subtle. His way of directing the actors is amazing. He writes the movie, and knows it more than anyone, so you know he is there to tell the cast what to do, and help them obtain their amazing performances. It's a visual style with life of its own. I said it. There's cruelty and honesty at the same time. There's passion. There's betrayal, lies, sex. You see it in the characters, in their words. When David arrives home and sees his wife Elena in bed, and starts to touch her; she doesn't like it. "What's the matter?", he asks. "It hurts", Elena answers. "Why?", he says. And with a face that involves everything I'm talking about, she looks at him: "Because I've been having sex all night"