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The Movie:
The kind of movie where a character is named "Crystal Ball", "Second Skin" is a small noir thriller that would be at home with all of the similar features that are generally available on cable at night and yet, parts and pieces of it are better than one might expect from a straight-to-video offering. Henstridge, seemingly trying to escape from the typecasting of the alien thriller "Species", stars here as Crystal Ball, a young women who enters into a bookstore in a small town and is injured in a hit-and-run once she leaves the store.
The store's owner, Sam Kane (Angus MacFadyen of "Braveheart") takes care and begins to fall in love with Crystal, although with her amnesia from the accient, Kane attempts to find out about her past. Although I wouldn't ordinarily give away major plot twists, the DVD box already does it for this picture, so I might as well - Crystal was actually hired to kill Sam based upon his former criminal past, that is, when she could remember her own past.
I went into "Second Skin" with fairly low expectations and although there are some things about the film that I didn't care for, I actually found some elements that I enjoyed about the picture. Henstridge isn't particularly the greatest of newcomer actresses, but she looks great and has a presence about her that is enjoyable. She can capably go from cheery and sweet to dark quite well, as well. She also has good chemistry with MacFadyen during many of their scenes. Even Peter Fonda turns up in a small role as a criminal boss.
Yet, not everything's perfect. The dialogue and situations aren't terribly original and sometimes come across as rather generic "noir" offerings. The film starts off rather interestingly and, for a while, we're waiting for something to happen. Ultimately though, a great deal of time passes by before the film gets more intense - enough time to lose my interest occasionally. The ending didn't feel right, either in comparison to the rest of the film.
The film is not without some problems and occasionally some predictable and unoriginal elements, but overall, it was a little better than I'd expected.
The DVD
VIDEO: "Second Skin" is presented in the film's original 1.77:1 aspect ratio and it is anamorphic. Like most Artisan titles, it's a fine effort that only has a couple of noticable problems that are slightly distracting. Sharpness and detail seem a bit off at times, as the picture occasionally looks a little bit soft and lacking a certain crispness.
There's some noticable flaws, but nothing massive. Some minor instances of pixelation pop up occasionally throughout the film, as well as some minor print flaws in the form of slight marks and scratches. Although the small 3.5 million budgeted film doesn't exactly have major production values, the cinematography is enjoyable and the locations (according to the IMDB, the film was shot in South Africa) are often stunning.
Colors are natural, but occasionally look beautiful. There are a few shots throughout that show marvelous blue skies that look rich and bold. Other colors fare well, too - looking well-saturated and clean. Overall, this is a respectable presentation that has some great looking scenes, but a few flaws that keep it from being fantastic.
SOUND: The film is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1, and with a small noir thriller like this one, the material doesn't really allow for a great deal of sound activity - in fact, much of the film is fairly mono-oriented, focusing on the film's dialogue. The musical score is fairly low-key as well, and mainly seems "in the background" when it does enter in. Surrounds are hardly used, although there are a couple scenes in the movie where they're put into play, if not majorly. Dialogue is clean and natural, although there were a few lines that seemed oddly dubbed.
MENUS:: Menus are non-animated, with very basic images serving as backgrounds.
EXTRAS: The trailer and cast bios.
Final Thoughts: Although not good enough to recommend, "Second Skin" is better than I'd expected. Artisan's DVD offers respectable audio/video quality, but nothing much in the way of features.
Film Grade
The Film ** 1/2
DVD Grades
Video 87/B = (348/400 possible points)
Audio: 85/B = (340/400 possible points)
Extras: 69/D+ = (217/300 possible points)
Menus: 70/C- = (140/200 possible points)
Value: 79/C+ = (237/300 possible points)
TOTAL POINTS:1282/1600
DVD GRADE:B-/80%
FILM GRADE: ** 1/2
DVD GRADE: B-
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