![]() ![]() ![]() That's too bad because the film is one of the better ones in Blake Edwards' career and certainly could use a reappraisal. As it turned out, "Skin Deep" was nowhere near a hit at the box office. The balance is a delicate one and without the sure-handed direction of Blake Edwards, the movie would've fallen flat on its face. "Skin Deep" plays like a combination of two of Edwards' very popular and earlier films, "The Days of Wine and Roses" and "Ten." One minute it's deadly serious and in the next it's a rip roaring comedy-of-errors. "You know what I tell alcoholics when they want me to help them? I tell them to STOP DRINKING." At last, his terse words of wisdom have an immediate and "sobering" effect on Zach and the recovery of his life begins. ![]() His simple but critical advice near the end of the movie saves our hero from complete disaster. The best secondary role is reserved for Michael Kidd as Zach's psychiatrist Doctor Westford. Julianne Phillips (Bruce Springsteen's first wife) has a nice role as one of Zach's almost serious relationships. Zach has been a huge disappointment to both of them and it's written all over their faces. She provides some gravitas to the film as does the great Nina Foch (Zach's not too happy mother-in-law). So why are we laughing? Others in the cast include Alyson Reed as Zach's estranged and exasperated wife Alexandra. Zach is spiraling towards suicide even faster than he drives his sportscar. The real funny thing, however, is that "Skin Deep" is actually a serious film posing as a standard Blake Edwards slapstick farce its underlying theme is about the main character's desperate and dire situation. ![]() Yet his sexual escapades and disheveled lifestyle contribute to some of the most hilarious scenes ever filmed in a movie. The fact that he's able to easily charm his way into one brief sexual encounter after another and get by with his obvious intelligence only compounds his problems. Alcohol has driven Zach "over the edge" and he's in big trouble. It's a moot point anyway as far as director/writer Blake Edwards is concerned. Whether his "writer's block" was a result of his alcoholism or that he's taken to the bottle because of it is never firmly established with viewers. John Ritter is Zach Hutton, an alcoholic writer whose life is unraveling by the minute. He did an amazing job, and I feel it's his finest performance, displaying his genuine charm as a comedic actor, as well as the possibly even more intriguing serious side of a conflicted, lost man. John Ritter was a master at perfecting both drama and comedy, which is what was needed for this role. The ending was satisfactory, but the movie in general was above average. The ending wraps things up a little too easily, but what the hell? Comedies usually have happy endings. He also endures genuine sadness in his life, and that makes him more human than just a simple comic sketch, and makes this such a great movie. He endures some of the most hilarious situations ever committed to film (I won't even bother mentioning the glow-in-the-ark condom sequence, but yes, it is hysterical). He's a washed up writer, his wife has left him with a settlement that was not exactly fair to his side, and he can't get over his obsession with picking up women. It is somewhat serious, Zach is a tortured soul, but he's mostly casually tortured and takes his abuse with humour, which makes it okay for us to laugh. This is a comedy that has an exaggerated sense of being true to life. It was no big surprise that within the next few scenes he's sobbing in a psychiatrist's office. At this point, I needed to take a very deep breath to brace myself, because it was very obvious that this guy has issues and this movie was going to be full of hilariously painful situations for our hero. They introduce themselves and share their disappointment in Zach. As it turns out, this woman is not Zach's wife, but his mistress, and she is ready to kill him until his wife walks in. The scene that follows is hilarious the music has stopped and we're thrust into a tense but funny moment. She catches him fooling around with a young blonde and grabs Zach's revolver. The house belongs to Zach Hutton, and the woman, we assume, is Zach's wife. Skin Deep starts off to a soulful, bluesy song called "falling out of love" (lyrically quite fitting for the main character), and we see a woman walking into a house. ![]()
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