After botching the remake of The Man Who Loved Women several years ago, Blake Edwards has now done a fractured remake of the remake, called Skin Deep. Unbelievably, it is even more inept than his first try at analyzing a compulsive womanizer.
The biggest jokes in this sort-of comedy are sight gags that Edwards manages to run into the ground. It’s enough to say that they involve a dead dog and the properties of condoms. In fact, condoms play a significant role in this film, as they signal either a carefree but socially conscious bachelorhood or, when no longer needed, a loving commitment at last.
John Ritter plays the unlikable Zachary Hutton, a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright whose wife divorces him for infidelity and whose girlfriends despise him for the same reason. He can’t resist obliterating the pain with drink. His psychiatrist listens to his insincere blathering, but no progress is made.
There’s a degree of black humor in the peculiar sexual encounters Zach has, including one with a female body-builder who reminds him of Arnold Schwarzenegger. But the self-hating hero of the piece lacks the charm to carry this film, which is the story of a loser.
Some scenes don’t work at all, especially the ones involving Julianne Phillips as Zach’s live-in girlfriend. One second in the film, everything’s fine between them, then in the next she is setting fire to his piano — as he’s playing it. A subsequent scene in which she takes revenge for his dishonesty is too predictable, though the physically uncontrollable aftermath she leaves him in is funny.
It’s hard to believe that Zach was ever “Faulkner’s one-time heir apparent,” as his agent calls him. It’s even harder to care about what happens to him or the other wealthy, handsome Hollywood characters. When his problems become insurmountable, Edwards supplies a preposterous turnaround that answers all of life’s difficult questions for Zach. He goes from a wreck to a winner in less than one minute of film time.
Skin Deep is another failure from a filmmaker whose best work seems a very long time ago.
SKIN DEEP
An unproductive, alcoholic writer tries to find help for his compulsive womanizing.
Credits: With John Ritter, Vincent Gardenia, Alyson Reed. Written and directed by Blake Edwards.
Violence, coarse language, obscenity, nudity, etc.
