Blake Edwards’ Skin Deep

Blake Edwards’ Skin Deep casts John Ritter as Zach Hutton, an incorrigible womanizer who is forced to re-evaluate his life after his wife (Alyson Reed’s Alex) and mistress (Denise Crosby’s Angie) learn of his affair with a hairdresser. It’s a decidedly familiar premise that’s employed to middling effect by writer/director Blake Edwards, as the filmmaker proves unable to elevate the proceedings above its been-there-done-that setup on a consistent basis – which, in turn, ensures that Blake Edwards’ Skin Deep possesses a bland and thoroughly underwhelming vibe that’s nothing short of disastrous (ie the movie is, from beginning to end, just so forgettable). The movie’s less-than-engrossing atmosphere is compounded by an ongoing paucity of laughs, as Edwards suffuses the narrative with a whole host of lame, eye-rolling attempts at comedy that fall hopelessly flat. (It’s worth noting that even the film’s notorious glow-in-the-dark condom sequence is unable to elicit even a chuckle from the viewer.) There’s little doubt, then, that Blake Edwards’ Skin Deep benefits substantially from Ritter’s typically charming turn as the central character, with the actor’s affable performance going a long way to ensure that the film is, at the very least, watchable. (This is despite sporting a beard that jarringly alternates between real and obviously fake.) Edwards’ inability to transform Zach into a compelling, three-dimensional figure worthy of the viewer’s interest thwarts one’s attempts to sympathize with his (all-too-obvious) character arc, and it’s consequently impossible to care whether or not he manages to both change his ways and win back his estranged wife – which, in the end, confirms Blake Edwards’ Skin Deep‘s place as a consistently misbegotten piece of work.

** out of ****