Skin Deep

Zach Hutton is a successful novelist whose drinking and womanizing have wrecked his marriage. When his wife leaves him, he finds himself alone, unable to write, and drifting through casual affairs and one-night stands while his dependence on alcohol deepens. A bartender and a therapist are among the few people still willing to stand by him as he struggles with the two habits that keep pulling him down.

Blake Edwards directed and wrote the film, the twenty-fourth of the twenty-seven features he directed, arriving between Sunset and Switch. John Ritter leads the cast as Zach, with Vincent Gardenia, Alyson Reed, Joel Brooks, Julianne Phillips and Chelsea Field in supporting roles; Tony Adams produced.

Released in March 1989, the film had a budget of about nine million dollars and took roughly twenty million worldwide, a solid return on its cost. On IMDb it holds a rating of 6.1 from around 5,600 votes, while on TMDB it sits at 6.2 from about 94 votes. A critics' rating of 5.1 from twenty-eight reviews places it below the audience scores, suggesting reviewers were less receptive than general viewers to this comedy-drama about a man confronting his appetites.