Second Skin

Starring:Natasha Henstridge, Angus Macfadyen, Liam Waite, Norman Anstey, Peter Fonda, AndrÃ© Jacobs, Pierre Malherbe, Terry Norton, Paddy Canavan, Anita Berk, Leonard Moss, Benjamin Ajogri, Ian Page (III), Lionel Swanson, Chris Duncan, James Anderson (XIV), Ian Bruce, Ana Alexander
Director: Darrell Roodt
Studio: Live / Artisan
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com

Excellent acting elevates Second Skin to earnest heights of heartfelt melodrama in contemporary Madrid. It's a Spanish soap opera in the most intelligent sense, inviting comparison to the intimate passion plays of Pedro Almódovar and Eric Rohmer. Director Gerardo Vera's approach is more conventional, despite the fact that this modest tale of marital discord involves an unhappy wife, Elena (Ariadna Gil), whose suspicions are only slightly mistaken. Instead of another woman, her husband Alberto (Jordi Mollà) is having an affair with Diego (Javier Bardem, from Before Night Falls). He's tormented by his genuine love for his wife, child, and gay lover, and his inability to choose between them. Unfortunately, the screenplay decides for him, resorting to a last-minute twist of fate to resolve the dilemma that Alberto couldn't solve on his own. It's a cop-out solution, more suited to bad cable TV, weakening an otherwise honest and emotionally involving film. Recommended, with minor reservations. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews:

sad.... really wonderfully sad.......2007-05-30

I found this movie had a really sad feel about it, from the opening credits through to the sad ending. It tugs at your emotions throughout and you cant help but feel sorry for each of the three main characters, even the son, who has only a minor part. Though the movie's colouring is bright and locations and people are all beautiful, this cannot distract from the fact that no good can surely come from this relationship, a feeling of pending doom and underlying hysteria is always there. I thought it well acted. Even though most did not like the ending, i felt it kept with the theme of the movie (sad). Highly recommended as a tragic love story for those who like to shed a tear for a love that could never be.

Richard

Excellent actors, very real .......2006-07-02

Didn't give 5 stars because of the ending wich I didn't like(won't tell you how it ends!)
It worths to be seen,great erotic scenes, great love story

A MAN TORN IN TWO...........(or: J&J Burn Up the Screen).......2006-06-16

****

(Torn between the life society forces one to live and the life one needs live...........)

How utterly devastating for lead character, Alberto, as for any of us, to face the realization that everything he's done in life (carrying on a family work tradition, courting and marrying, parenting) is NOT who he really is. A third generation (grandfather, father before him) airport operations worker, and husband / father......these are all roles in life which have been 'expected' of him, all roles in which he's truly tried to give his best. In the end, all that trying might not prove to be enough. But would even finding the "love of his life" (Javier Bardem's Diego) prove enough? He'd thought....hoped....it would. After all, it is this man whom he's told in so many words: "I think this time with you has been the best in my life."

Yet, can someone truly successfully live a double life? Alberto is faced with answering this quandary upon Elena's discovery of his outside-their-marriage activities. In seeking the answer, will he find his feelings for Elena prove the greater or will he find their life together has been based on only what was expected of him (expectations......expectations, meeting them can tear you apart)? To compound his conflict, at the near conclusion of everything, when Diego says: "you have to start over......," you can plainly see the realization in Jordi Molla's oh-so-expressive eyes and face (this man is so beautiful), that his quandary has just been pushed beyond the level of human endurance.

FINAL RESTATEMENT: In the end, then, we can see we have been given the study of a man raised and pushed into being something he isn't. It's the story of oh, so many out there. Some are able to break the mold, others not---the strength of commitments (to spouse, to children, family) being too great. Or perhaps that's the excuse used for staying within the mold. But in the hearts and minds of those who do stay, the longings---those yearnings for "the other"---are there.......always there.......and they hurt. Alberto might be able to break from the mold, but to what point? Only viewing this film, dear reader, will provide you the answer.

(A word of warning to those possibly offended by scenes of male love-making. In the "Unrated' version, they are intense)

PS---Many aspects of this Spanish film pre-sage ones in America's later released "Brokeback Mountain" (2005). Was Ennis's conflict any more soul-wrenching than Alberto's? Yes, Ennis is much the simpler man, but over and above that, when it comes to the love of your life, does it really matter where in this world you find that love (out-of-the-way ranch town or bustling city.......lofty urban areas or soaring mountains)?

****

Javier Bardem is once again amazing in this film........2006-04-02

After viewing this the other day I find it intriguing. This film consist of an married couple and a male lover, only this time it's not the wife but the husband who's cheating with another man. Some of the scenes made me cringed a speck. Though, it is a bit TV plot based on a true story, and it has rarely been seen on cinema, doesn't necessarily mean that it cannot be done. In fact, the quality that makes this particular movie a good piece of art is that it portrayed as a good archetype of a modern life situation that happen to occur more often than one could suspect.

The husband's unwillingness and incapableness to find his true nature, constantly lying to his wife and his lover, has driven those last characters to despair in understanding and helping the man they love but who they don't know. The wife never suspected that her lack of involvement in their relationship could endanger her marriage at the point of seeing her husband seeking for an affair. As for the gay lover, the fact that his present companion has afraid to be seen in public with him, like two lovers rather than two friends, hurts him badly because he accepts his own nature. The intriguing excuses of Alberto, the husband, makes them reacting towards him trying to solve the puzzle that he consists, when the easy way out of the situation is right near them (like when the wife cannot enjoy being with another man when she has the opportunity or the lover won't accept his female colleague to help getting over him). Three persons portrayed in their interior (the opening credits with the x-rays is one of the most beautiful openings I've seen lately) with their emotions thickening as the film passes.

The players of this movie are excellent, particularly Ariadna Gil, the wife. What disappointed me were the last fifteen minutes in which seems that the writer and director of this movie were replaced by others who didn't know what was done before, leaving the ending so pathetic and inconclusive.

I had read that this film has caused a lot of controversy in Spain. It is establishing a trend in Spanish films exploiting gay themes by casting some of the country's most popular male stars as lovers to lure viewers, therefore appealing to voyeurism. This "gayploitation" has been going on for over a decade in Spanish cinema. In fact, it's hard to name an established Spanish actor who hasn't appeared in at least one gay role. However, in most cases, these roles or their sexuality have been secondary. Whether this film is voyeuristic or not is certainly up to the viewer to decide. Still, it is worth a watch.

Spanish Gay Soap Opera.......2005-12-02

As others have noted, this well-acted, glossy-looking film has a soap opera set-up, but with a gay twist. In spite of that, "Segunda piel" starts off very promisingly but then it becomes increasingly preposterous, and by the end the film's plot has degenerated into something worthy of the "steamy erotic thrillers" that, in the U.S., now go straight-to-DVD and in the 1990s would star the likes of Andrew Stevens, Sally Kirkland or Jeff Fahey. To be fair, U.S. films would not show the sympathetic scenes of gay male intimacy seen in this Spanish release. In spite of the overblown melodramatics during the second half of the film, Bardem, Gil and Molla are, as usual, good and great to look at, and I did end up enjoying the film, but in a trashy fun sort of way.

Average customer rating:

Second Skin
Starring: Javier Bardem , Jordi Mollà , Ariadna Gil , Cecilia Roth , and Mercedes Sampietro
Director: Gerardo Vera
Manufacturer: New Yorker Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000088UZ5
Release Date: 2003-03-25

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Average customer rating:

You see something new every time you view it
Top-notch Noir Film!
I flat out loved it!
Joins the film noir greats
Stylish, twisty noir

Second Skin
Starring: Natasha Henstridge , Angus Macfadyen , Liam Waite , Norman Anstey , and Peter Fonda
Director: Darrell Roodt
Manufacturer: Live / Artisan
ProductGroup: DVD
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Release Date: 2001-04-10

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Natasha Henstridge smokes a cigarette and hides her eyes behind dark glasses while coolly sizing up her next assignment, and then launches into action. Is she a femme fatale, or merely a hard-boiled fiction fan looking for a job in Angus MacFadyen's musty, messy bookstore? Before we can find out, she's clipped in a hit and run and wakes up with amnesia. Or is it just a ruse, and if so, why? Of course nothing is as it seems in this sleek, slick, modern film noir. MacFadyen has an awful lot of money for a man who actively dissuades browsers and buyers from his store; Henstridge is shadowed by a couple of menacing-looking characters; and somewhere in the back of it all a creepy Peter Fonda is pulling the strings as a calmly meticulous and coldly ruthless crime boss. Darrell James Roodt directs this twisting tale of secret identities, double crosses, hidden pasts, and concealed loyalties with all the grit and depth of a fashion layout: it's handsome but hollow. Thankfully there's the criminally underrated Henstridge at the center of all the mysteries, a sexy, assured, riveting presence who gives weight to the film's most enigmatic character. Perhaps it's not so hard after all to understand loner MacFadyen risking his present for a future with the fiery, dangerous Henstridge. --Sean Axmaker

Customer Reviews:

You see something new every time you view it.......2007-01-13

Having never heard of the movie before it was suggested on Netflix, I wasn't sure what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised by outstanding performances all around.

Angus Macfadyen, who has taken a few hits for his performance, gives a masterfully subtle, nuanced performance as Sam. To compare him to other actors is to compare Baroque to Romance periods of classical music; Romance composers had more wild flair, but Baroque is appreciated in the precision, control and details. Like a Baroque composer, Angus Macfadyen shines in the details. He can show a vast range of emotion simply by raising a brow, tilting his chin, getting a hard look in his eyes. If you aren't accustomed to watching people for these changes and reading those small subtleties of their mannerisms, you miss some of his greatness. A great performance isn't always handed to you. Sometimes you have to be invested in it but a talented actor like Angus Macfadyen makes it well worth the effort. In the end, you find yourself identifying with his character even though he is flawed and has brought much of this on himself with his questionable former life. He takes a character we may not like under other circumstances and makes him someone you are rooting for in the end.

It was a thoroughly engaging movie and I would recommend it to anyone who is looking for a good thriller to add to their DVD library.

Top-notch Noir Film!.......2005-06-17

When you have talent, a good script and remarkable cast, it is almost impossible for you not to triumph, even you make a low budget picture without great and spectacular effects that just only mesmerize to the new generation of teenagers.
There is solid story behind this plot.As you know one of the classical premises of the Noir Films is that nobody is absolutely innocent. That is why many people are beaten by this circumstance.
The presence of the captivating and seductive Natasha Henstridge from the intial shots, coming to the Used Books Tent will open Pandora' box.
Through a very well articulated mechanism of dark loyalties and hard to believe solidarities, the viewer will be engaged progressively in this drama.
A personal tragedy, a love affair, several stolen millions, betrayal and passionate and complex web of facts and events will make of this film one of the most interesting movies in years that I 've seen.
Highly recommended.

I flat out loved it!.......2004-04-28

What more can I say? Buy the movie; you'll want to watch it over and over!

Joins the film noir greats.......2002-11-22

A small low budget film with little or no publicity could join the noir greats. It has all the classic ingredients - an ice cool blonde, a bad bad gangster, and a savage twist at the end. some really interesting effects from the director with cross and jump cutting. Liked every bit of it.

I have not enjoyed a film noir so much since Blood Simple.

Stylish, twisty noir.......2002-02-26

Second Skin is a very nicely realized contemporary noir tale that is considerably elevated above the usual "cable noir" junk by its beautiful photography, icy score, and the remarkable beauty and underrated acting of Natasha Henstridge, who has never been sexier or more controlled in her performance. The director makes the most of his Cape Town locations, which look enough like the California coast to make you forget this was shot anywhere else. The plot doesn't break much new ground, but it delivers a very surprising final twist. Fans of Henstridge and the genre wont be disappointed.

Average customer rating:

Second Skin
Starring: Natasha Henstridge , Angus Macfadyen , Liam Waite , Norman Anstey , and Peter Fonda
Director: Darrell Roodt
Manufacturer: Lions Gate
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B00005NB8N
Release Date: 2001-08-14

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Segunda Piel (Second Skin) [PAL/REGION 2 DVD. Import-Spain]

Average customer rating:

Segunda Piel (Second Skin) [PAL/REGION 2 DVD. Import-Spain]
Director: Gerardo Vera
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

Average customer rating:

You see something new every time you view it
Top-notch Noir Film!
I flat out loved it!
Joins the film noir greats
Stylish, twisty noir

Second Skin [Region 2]
Starring: Natasha Henstridge , Angus Macfadyen , Liam Waite , Norman Anstey , and Peter Fonda
Director: Darrell Roodt
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

Thrillers | Mystery & Suspense | Genres | DVD | Video

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