[Director Pedro Almodóvar] is adapting a novel by Ruth Rendell, one of our own queens of crime. Yet there is nothing anonymous about this full-blooded, constantly surprising thriller.

A single ricochet gunshot propels the plot and dramatically alters the lives of the quintet. The result is a vengeful, five-way battle of wits.

The overall purpose of Live Flesh, the latest and reputedly most 'mature' work from Spanish bad-boy director Pedro Almodovar, remains engigmatic.

Pedro Almodóvar returns to vintage form but displaying a new maturity that doesn't feel the need to parcel everything up with sexual explicitness and garish kitsch melodrama.