Blake Edwards, who directed Skin Deep, is like a magician who keeps you enthralled by his quick wit while he seamlessly switches the rabbits behind his sexy assistant’s back. It is essentially the tragic tale about a man who hits rock bottom while drinking and womanizing. However, I cannot think of any other serious movie that features a performance of ballet to glow in the dark condom’s.
The protagonist in the novel is a writer named Zach, played by John, who is on the verge of losing everything in his life. His constant pursuit of pretty girls have left him with writer’s block. Now, his husband is leaving him, and his agent is kicking the bucket. To add to this mess, he has gotten arrested for driving under the influence about twice every week. To make matters worse, his house has been burned down to the ground. His life is in shambles, as depicted in the first scene where his wife finds him in bed with their hair dresser.
Zach’s primary issue is alcoholism. He belongs to the category of drunkards who have their evenings mapped out in phases, during which a woman may initially find him to be charming and seductive. In the subsequent phase, he “plays” Cole Porter on the piano, and in the early hours of the day, he is likely to wake up in a guest room belonging to a bartender. In the process, he is likely to have vomited in the aquarium, glued the dog to the ceiling with Super Glue, and wrapped himself in toilet tissue because he was cold.
Edwards is somewhat detached with a maniacal gleam of a sardonic jokester and, thus, approaches him with the gleaming face of a wicked maniac in spite of the fact that there is no hope for redemption for Zach. While he is indeed a pathetic case, the movie is actually wickedly hilarious as it chronicles his exploits with an endless array of women who are willing to share their beds with him. One of them is a gigantic body builder, and another one is a woman who douses his piano with lighter fluid and sets it ablaze. In, I suspect, one of the scenes I will remember the longest, he sleeps with a rock star’s girlfriend who suggests he wear one of the star’s condoms – an iridescent glow-in-the-dark one which opens up two of the marvelous yet strangest scenes Edwards has ever filmed.
Some might find this character vaguely recognizable, and that is because we have seen him in other films made by Edwards. He shares quite a number of characteristics with the Dudley Moore characters of 10 and Micki and Maude, the Burt Reynolds character in The Man Who Loved Women, and the Jack Lemmon character in ‘That’s Life! All these gentlemen adored some reasonable, rational, loyal, gorgeous women – who most often happened to be their wives – yet were motivated by desire into the arms of temporary acquisitions, and by alcohol into the hands of sympathetic bartenders.
These films are concerned more with the role of the best friend’s and confidant’s character than with any of the women except the one entrant whom the character begins with. As who does not remember Brian Dennehy as the bartender to whom Moore unburdened himself in ’10’? Or Richard Mulligan the boss who aided Moore to cope with the pressure of Bigamy in Micki and Maude? The John Ritter character in Skin Deep is so pathetic that he gets not only a bartender (Vincent Gardenia) but a psychiatrist (Michael Kidd) to do the confession instead.
What would you tell him? That he drinks too much? That’s a funny question to ask! Johnson’s alcoholism is evident to everyone he interacts with yet he is the last person to realize the truth. He’s just one of those people who, as Louis Armstrong famously said about jazz, ‘you can’t tell ‘em’. Ritter is an alcoholic who drinks just to complain and the best part is he can’t write and goes on to consider suicide as his only option. After a while, he wants to say, ‘what’s the point in putting more thought into this?’ He finally has an epiphany where he thinks, wait a second, there must be more to life than just sadness and suffering. “What do I tell alcoholics who come to seek my help? The first step is to stop drinking!” Now this is only one of the many pieces of sage advice he has. “Skin Deep” does not set out in a ‘Clean and Sober’ aura. It is the complete and utter blend of obsession and stupidity, seriousness and absurdness. The ladies in the movie tend to portray a particular aesthetic – they always seem to be opinionated, which is what makes them so great.
Clearly, bimbos would not be impressed by the Ritter character in his first appearance, but these women sadly overshoot the mark by being with him long enough to realize that he is beguilingly intricate, and that gets them into a ton of problems as he becomes increasingly intricate and less charming the more he drinks.
Ritter’s portrayal of ‘Skin Deep’ was a transition. Clearly he has more depth here, more dimension than he has shown before, and he is more than able to tackle the most difficult aspect of playing a drunk in a movie. That is, you are both the joker and the straight man, simultaneously.
In “Skin Deep”, the daring thing Edwards does is try to blend two completely various tones within a single film. This is a wise and attentive film which knows so much about human nature and contains parts that seek to infuriate on purpose. Take a look at the ground Edwards covers in that scene where his protagonist goes for dinner with his wife’s ex husband, ex mother in law, ex stepson and the stepson’s girlfriend.
Everything is so effortlessly intertwined: arousal, pathos, sarcasm, and rudeness. “Skin Deep” is somewhat like a triathalon for a filmmaker, and even if Edwards fails to break any records, he certainly participates in every event.
To watch more movies like Skin Deep (1989) visit 123movies.
Also watch for more movies like:
