SECOND SKIN (Segunda piel)

I read somewhere about a modern trend of so-dubbed "gaysploitation" films in Spain. Apparently, it is the latest rage for popular mainstream actors in that country to prove their mettle by starring in cookie-cutter, often quite racy gay-themed films. It sounds to be on par with American actors appearing in indie films, as if to exclaim, "Look at me! I'm edgy!" (see: Tom Cruise in Magnolia). Now this isn't a bad thing (on either shore), but I hope that films much better than Second Skin will emerge from this trend.

Jordi Mollà plays Alberto, a supposedly happily married man with a gorgeous wife (Ariadna Gil) and a young son. One day by accident, his wife Elena discovers a hotel receipt in her husband's jacket pocket, and deduces that he is having an affair. Well, she is right, but doesn't guess that he is sleeping with the handsome surgeon Diego (white-hot Javier Bardem of Before Night Falls). When Alberto's homosexuality comes out of the bedroom, it basically destroys this man who can't understand that both of his lovers should just be happy that they both get a piece of him.

Second Skin is a melodrama in all senses of the word. There is lots of weeping (no, not crying, but all-out, shoulder-wracking weeping), furious accusations, defensive denials, desperate sex, and a way over-the-top swelling violin soundtrack.

But it is all too much. There has to be a tad bit of restraint to maintain believability—and Second Skin was so over-the-top that I just wanted to give them all a stinging backhanded slap by the end and walk out of the room in my best diva fashion. Which is really too bad. With Javier Bardem and Jordi Mollà as the lovers, and the fabulous Cecilia Roth (All About My Mother) as Javier's best friend... I mean, c'mon! To waste a cast like that is a cryin' shame! And, unfortunately, a waste is what this movie is.