Anyone expecting to see UK crime novelist Ruth Rendell's
Live Flesh, a dank story of bad luck, seething envy and, almost incidentally, crime, is in for a shock. Pedro Almodovar has reworked the tale almost beyond recognition, transforming it into candy-colored erotic melodrama. Madrid cops David (Javier Bardem) and Sancho (Jose Sancho) respond to a report of shots fired in a luxury apartment building, and arrive to find beautiful Elena (Francesca Neri) struggling with Victor (Liberto Rabal). They don't know that she's a junkie in a
drug-addled fury and Victor -- a hard-luck jerk, smarting because Elena has cruelly insulted his manhood -- has a gun because he...
Released:
1997
Rated:
R
Length:
101 mins