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FILM
Alberto (top) is “ not like that,“
but he sure acts like it
in Second Skin
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1
Seconds, anyone?
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G ary M orris
H I ’m not like that!" says Alberto (Jordi
Molla) to his secret lover, Diego (Javier
| Bardem), in Second Skin, which opens
¡S Aug. 16 at Hollywood Theatre.
•“That,” as you might guess, is queer— a
comment that’s especially alarming after Alber
to’s earlier wistful declaration of love. Gerardo
Vera’s steamy film presents the classic dilemma
of the faithless husband with a gay twist.
Hunky engineer Alberto is married to Elena
(Ariadna G il), and they have a kid from the
long-gone days when they were still having
sex. He is understandably bored to death with
middle-class hetero life, though he also clings
desperately to it.
Alberto has discovered his gay side and pur
sues it furtively with the even hunkier Diego, a
surgeon. Inevitably, the pressure of trying to
have the social approval and ease that come
with straight life along with a sweaty queer
romance on the side causes our protagonist to
become Kith crazed and careless. He can’t help
hut leave a little trail of cell phone messages and
hotel receipts, which Elena, of course, discovers.
Ariadna Gil is great as Alberto’s tortured wife
From there it’s a dizzying spiral of accusa
tions, unmet demands for love and commit
ment among all parties, breakdowns, other
liaisons and a final tragedy that removes one
member of this triangle without making it easy
for the remaining two to he together.
One of the lures of Second Skin is its candor
in treating the details of Alberto and Diego’s
liaisons. Queer viewers so often have to con
tend themselves with fadeouts, drawn curtains,
a nervous camera that shifts to a window or a
seascape rather than honestly witness the trou
bling tableau of man on man. This movie
shows bow far we— or at least Spain, where the
film was made— have come from those days
and how unnecessary such subterfuge is.
Alberto and Diego are pom-star sexy, and
their love scenes are presented as natural and,
indeed, desirable, with Diego’s pleasure at
falling in love palpable and the tormented
Alberto gaining a sense of peace— if temporari
ly— by acting on his true desires.
Hot straight actors playing gay men seems
to have become a staple of Spanish cinema
lately, and Bardem, whose charms first surfaced
on the international scene in 1992’s Jamón
Jamón, is the poster boy for this movement.
(Penis spotters were well rewarded by the film’s
much-remarked midnight “bullfighting” scene.)
As Diego, he’s alternately passionate and sub
missive and mostly convincing as the uncloset
ed gay man trying to forge a life with a tortured
bisexual.
The almost indecent good looks of Molla,
another alumnus of Jamón, threaten to capsize
his characterization— or at least distract the
viewer into an uncritical stupor of lust— but his
unabashed emotionalism gives Alberto the
gravitas necessary to convey his dilemma.
Like any self-respecting actor, Bardem hasn’t
hesitated to “play gay” in his career— most
notably in Before Night Falls — though he appar
ently did have some trepidation about the love
scenes in Second Skin.
“In the stronger scenes,” he’s quoted as say
ing, “I could easily have felt a hit uncomfort
able— they’re pretty explicit— but luckily, we
were amongst friends. 1 don’t know whether I
could have done this role with another actor.
Between Jordi and me, there is trust and friend
ship.” So convincing is their chemistry that
one can imagine trust, friendship and more
outside the set.
Director Vera has said the film is autobio
graphical, which might account for the sense of
engagement in its issues. No pat answers are
offered, though. None of the characters is present
ed as villainous, though Alberto skirts it during a
party when he’s publicly dismissive of Diego.
Gil as the suffering wife manages to sidestep
the role’s soapier aspects, bringing a sense of
entrapment and confusion to Elena. Cecilia
Roth (memorable in Pedro Almodovar’s All
About My Mother) also registers strongly as
Diego’s boss, Eva, a strong, sexy woman whose
unrequited love for Diego filigrees the work.
The one area where Second Skin suffers is in
its syrupy score, which uses swirling violins
relentlessly to underscore the notion of the char
acters’ drift. Such melodramatics are irritating
and unnecessary in a film that works hard to
avoid the soap opera inherent in the story. J H
v *e
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most definitely is like that.
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