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Skin Deep

Skin Deep

Romance · Comedy · Drama · 1989

Hard-drinking novelist Zach Hutton spirals out of control after his wife and mistress both leave him. Alone and crippled by a bad case of writer's block, Zach slips in and out of casual relationships and one-night stands, while his drinking becomes more and more severe. With the help of a bartender and his therapist, Zach confronts his demons — women and alcohol.

Movie details

Skin Deep

“The comedy that glows in the dark.”

1989 Romance · Comedy · Drama 1h 37m

Critical arithmetic

The consensus, allegedly.

IMDb

6.1 / 10

5.3K votes

Rotten Tomatoes

36 %

Tomatometer

Metacritic

43 / 100

Metascore

TMDB

6.2 / 10

Community rating

External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.

Hard-drinking novelist Zach Hutton spirals out of control after his wife and mistress both leave him. Alone and crippled by a bad case of writer's block, Zach slips in and out of casual relationships and one-night stands, while his drinking becomes more and more severe. With the help of a bartender and his therapist, Zach confronts his demons — women and alcohol.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over Skin Deep?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

Love & Sex

Love & Sex

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When her rather explicit copy is rejected, magazine journalist Kate is asked by her editor to come up with an article on loving relationships instead, and to do so by the end of the day. This gets Kate thinking back over her own various experiences, and to wondering if she is in much of a position to write on the subject.

Enemies, a Love Story

Enemies, a Love Story

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She Came to Me

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Heartburn

Heartburn

Comedy · 1986

She's a magazine writer who gives up her career for love and family. He's a playboy newspaper columnist who can't quite give up his old tricks. And if that combination doesn't give a relationship heartburn, nothing will.

XX/XY

XX/XY

Drama · 2002

Three friends begin a dangerous three-way relationship that spirals out of control, leading to dire consequences that haunt them ten years later.

In the Land of Women

In the Land of Women

Romance · 2007

After a bad breakup with his girlfriend leaves him heartbroken, Carter Webb moves to Michigan to take care of his ailing grandmother. Once there, he gets mixed up in the lives of the mother and daughters who live across the street.

Celebrity

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Not Another Happy Ending

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When a struggling publisher discovers his only successful author is blocked, he knows he has to unblock her or he's finished. With her newfound success, she's become too happy and she can't write when she's happy. The only trouble is, the worse he makes her feel, the more he realizes he's in love with her.

People, Places, Things

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Romance · 2015

Will Henry is a newly single graphic novelist balancing being a parent to his young twin daughters and teaching a classroom full of college students, all the while trying to navigate the rich complexities of new love and letting go of the woman who left him.

Where it lives

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Blake Edwards

Written by

Blake Edwards

John Ritter

John Ritter

Zach

Vincent Gardenia

Vincent Gardenia

Barney

Alyson Reed

Alyson Reed

Alex

Joel Brooks

Joel Brooks

Jake

Julianne Phillips

Julianne Phillips

Molly

Chelsea Field

Chelsea Field

Amy

Peter Donat

Peter Donat

Sparky

Court is in session

Put Skin Deep on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Sentimental Softie

“Sincerity is not manipulation.”

The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.

The prosecution The Cool Ironist

“The strings are showing.”

Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.