Tampa Bay Times from St. Petersburg, Florida • 95

MOVIES KB BEEP" IB urfaci ERELY ramus Movie is all that its title implies logical approach: "If you want to kill him, do a favor and take him outside. Those are new sheets." Alex (Alyson Reed) throws Zach's typewriter into the swimming pool and Zach out the front door. She files for divorce and gets a healthy settlement. By HAL UPPER Timet Film Critic lake Edwards is running out of mid-life crises to i 0 I SKIN DEEP Cast: John Ritter, Vincent Gardenia. Aiyson Reed, Joel Brooks, Chelsea Field, Peter Donat Director Blake Edwards Screenplay: Blake Edwards Rating: nudity, profanity, adult situations Running Time: 102 minutes Excellent Very good Oood Mediocre irir; Poor The condom scene is classic Edwards.

It is as outrageous as the finest moments in Victor Victoria, S.O.B. or the Pink Panther series. But a few hilarious situations hardly compensate for this otherwise turgid meditation on middle-age woes. Though less preachy than Clean and Sober, the Michael Kea-ton temperance bandwagon, Skin Deep spends an inordinate amount of time searching for rather obvious answers to Zach's inability to write or maintain meaningful relationships. Then, afraid to confront Zach's demons in his film, Edwards contrives an instantaneous recovery read no further if you want to keep the movie's ending a secret no more drinking, sexual abstinence and writing as therapy.

Voi-la! An instant best-selling novel. With the process of recovery ignored, the change in Zach's character seems less plausible than it would under the best of circumstances. Skin Deep is afraid to explore the moral and psychological dilemmas it presents. Its characters, notably Ritter, are as restrained as the material. And perhaps most disappointing, there are only a few moments brilliant enough to be equated with the sporadic genius of Blake Edwards.

Skin Deep, his latest account of foibles at middle age, bears more than a fleeting resemblance to such earlier works as 10, Micki Maude, The Man Who Loved Women and Blind Date. Edwards has enjoyed varying degrees of success with these chronicles of philandering, frightened or otherwise angst-ridden men. Recently, his retreads have missed more often than they have hit in both comedic and philosophical respects. Skin Deep is more shallow than its title suggests. It utterly fails in its attempt to explore a recurring Edwards' theme: the difficulty, and perhaps impossibility, of changing the essence of one's character.

The character in question is Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Zach Hutton, played rather impassively by a bearded John Ritter. Zack is an alcoholic in the throes of writer's block. More importantly, he is a compulsive womanizer who early in Skin Deep is caught in bed with his mistress' hairdresser by both his mistress and his wife. The mistress pulls a gun. Zach's wife, Alex, takes a more Skin Deep is afraid to explore the moral and psychological dilemmas itpresents.

Zach goes through a series of bizarre romantic entanglements, resulting in the buying of a house he doesn't need and the intentional torching of that same residence. He spends a night with a female body builder. He has an encounter with a sophisticated groupie whose rock-star boyfriend favors fluorescent condoms. Twentieth Century Fox John Ritter portrays prizewinning playwright Zach Hutton. Comtek RESTAURANT New in the South 6540 Park Boulevard, Pinellas Park, Fla.

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