Second Skin (2000)

Second skin highlights the plight of Alberto (the perfect example of a family man, outwardly devoted to his wife Elena and their son Adrián) who's struggling to come to terms with his homosexuality due to intense inner conflict. In turn, he cheats on his wife with the handsome surgeon, Diego.Alberto carries out a double life where he tries to please his wife and gay lover but the implications thereof are cataclysmic. The message is evident of staying true to yourself, how honesty can set you free and the consequences of infidelity – Alberto discovers this too late. He had lost his identity, found himself in a career he was pressurised into pursuing as he tried too hard to please everyone else around him.I cannot help but pity Alberto, even though he is the cancer in both Elena and Diego's lives. Alberto (as a metaphor) could be present in any of our lives, perhaps not as a homosexual lover/spouse but as that toxic friend, relative or partner that is faulted by human error, the one you keep forgiving and pitying, yet you're fooled by their never ending lies and manipulation. I enjoyed the movie; however, the ending was off putting. Alberto got off the hook too easily and consequently, Diego and Elena were left to clean up his mess – how will she explain the death of Alberto to Adrián, who will now grow up fatherless.

The kaleidescope of images that make up the beautiful opening credits (which is probably the best opening I've seen in a long time) truly sets the tone for this film. And in this film ,just like a kaleidescope, the parts that make it up seem simple enough. You have the pretty wife, the cute kid, and the husband with a secret. You have the lover on the side, a handsome doctor. But this handsome Doctor Diego, played wonderfully by Javier Bardem, is having an affair with Alberto, the husband in the not so perfect marriage. But , just like the kaleidescope ,this is where the simplicity ends. We've all seen the films of people finding out, and coming to terms with their sexuality.That's what makes this film unique. It's not another "I'm discovering I'M Gay" picture. This movie doesn't follow that typical plot. The kaleidescope effect comes into play. You have to deal with a range of emotions that for me, at first, made me completely loath Alberto . The wife suspects, the wife finds out, yet Alberto's lies are too deeply woven in his psyche . And although Diego knows there's not something quite right, but because he's in love, he looks past them. He wants to believe he's not a fool.Alberto incessantly lies to both his wife, and his lover.The man is completely arrogant and self absorbed on every level. He is indifferent to his wife and Diego.Though his wife knows, he makes promises to her he can't keep. And he strings Diego along with more lies and distance, with complete disregard for the mans love for him.. I was completely hateful in regards to Alberto, but the more I thought about it..the more he came across to me as a man so desperately and selfishly in love with two people , and what each had to offer, that he actually couldn't fathom losing either one of them. The range of emotions, from love, betrayal , trust , and understanding are just a few of the emotions that come into play. I love how this movie isn't about being gay, but how one person can effect the lives of others with the tangled web of deception , that eventually effects and destroys exactly what one was trying to hold onto in the first place.I know many are disappointed with the conclusion of the story. But for me, I found the journey far more important to what was the obvious and inevitable outcome.Ohh..and the man on man sex scene...SMOKING HOT!

Audiences who believed LA MUJER DE MI HERMANO to be the first to tackle marital infidelity where the husband has an affair with -- gasp! -- another man may not have heard of this little movie that splashed itself unto European movie theatres (and ultimately, ours in several Gay and Lesbian film festivals) in 2000. SEGUNDA PIEL (SECOND SKIN) delves into the theme of self-hatred through the disguise of infidelity, with the catch that even by the time of its release this sort of story had been explored years and years ago. If you change the sex of Diego (played by that explosive mass of dangerous masculinity called Javier Bardem) and make him a she, you have the basic of every Hollywood soaper that made it unto movie screens from day one. As a matter of fact, this movie plays with a sub-genre of gay fiction, gay romance, in which elements prevalent in heterosexual romance drive a plot. While many may chuckle at the thought, I seem to find value in it -- I would rather see this type of by-the-number, Lifetime-oriented melodrama ten times over anything that attempts to bring forth rituals of quasi-masculinity described in much of the literature of Jean Genet or Fassbinder's 1982 movie QUERELLE. For any story to work there has to be some form of an emotional link to it, even if it is hokey and clichéd. It's why a little movie called GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN works for me (despite it been filmed on a micro-budget), and why the works of William S. Burroughs, as extreme in their depiction of entire civilizations of men and the violence of their subcultures, leave me cold. SECOND SKIN is far from a great movie, or even a good one -- some subplots, such as Elena's sleeping with her co-worker -- lead nowhere, and it's true that there are times when Alberto made me want to break that fourth wall and smack him a good one for playing with the devoted Diego and Elena (and pretty much everyone else in the movie). However, it has the presence of four of Spain's best actors -- Javier Bardem, Jordi Molla (as Alberto), Ariadna Gil (as Elena), and Cecilia Roth (as Diego's friend and co-worker Eva), and the irony of showing scenes of homosexual sex so passionate they nearly stop the movie in its tracks as opposed to the more tame heterosexual scenes.

A must see for Spanish film fans, Segunda Piel brings together some of the most interesting contemporary actors. The plot is however quite disappointing. Slick photography in a wanna-be-almodovar setting: interior design with striking silimarities to Carne Tremula and t.v. commercials that unluckily do not reach the level of subtility of the Spanish Oscar winning director.