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IN MY SKIN Send This Review to a Friend
Should "In My Skin" be reviewed as a film or dining experience? Had I not been to see it as a professional duty, I would have left after the first mutilations and escaped the self-cannibalism. Written and directed by Marina de Van, this is a film about one woman's obsession that completely overwhelms her.
Esther, played by the writer-director, has an accident that leaves her leg with a huge gash that she doesn't even feel at first. Little by little she becomes fascinated with the wound, her body and her skin. Soon she begins to slice off slivers of skin. Eventually she cuts off flesh and tastes it. Her boyfriend, poor fellow, doesn't like the mutilation that he realizes is happening and which she tries to hide from him and her co-workers.
The promotional ploy for the film tries to elevate it to being about a woman attempting to get in touch with her body. I'm all for women being interested in their bodies. But that's a long way from the obsessive, brutal and off-putting scenes we are asked to witness here.
Esther becomes crazier and crazier as she becomes more and more compulsive about her flesh. You can go along with the idea that this is art about extreme obsession and give it a try, or you can avoid a film that I found watching almost unbearable. A Wellspring release.
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