Rim23shot

'Skin', set in a grim Dutch working class area in 1979, tells the story of Frankie, who starts out as a normal, somewhat rebellious teenager, and ends up as a neo-Nazi in jail. His Jewish father, a concentration camp survivor, is unable to communicate with his wife and son, which frustrates Frankie and has already created a clearly uneasy father-son relationship at the beginning of the film. When Frankie's mother gets seriously ill and needs to be hospitalized, all frustrations come creeping out from under Frankie's skin and a rough process in which he alienates from his father and most of his friends is set in motion. Even though Frankie does not intend for it to happen, he gradually finds some solace with a group of skinhead neo-Nazis, and escalation ensues.

There are some parallels between this film and the classic 'American History X', but whereas that film shows us how a remorseful neo-Nazi seeks redemption, this one explores how exactly a young person who would seem an unlikely candidate for adopting such views ends up doing so for all the wrong reasons (if there even are any right ones to begin with). Moreover, 'Skin' is a strong, gripping story about what may happen when communication fails, set against a background of growing intolerance and violence.

I was really eager to see this film, mainly because I'm very interested in 'Iron Sky', the new project from the people that made this film, but also because of my soft spot for 'Star Trek'. Despite this, I was rather disappointed.

What's wrong with this film is the pacing. It's too slow. A film like this, even though it is definitely a parody, should be high-paced in general, with of course some exceptions. Perhaps they were trying to spoof 'Star Trek: The Motion Picture' a little too hard, but it didn't work for me. So not-so-good editing (it's not bad, mind you) kind of killed my enthusiasm here, and I do hope the editor(s) will pay more attention to this when they start cutting 'Iron Sky'. I know I might sound like a spoiled kid when I say all this, but I'm used to action films having the right tempo, and this one didn't. Blame it on Hollywood, they've ruined me.

Another thing that disappointed me was the screenplay. Although there were lots of - mostly subtle - jokes for SF-fan boys, hardly any of them made me smile. They were well-crafted, but not funny enough. Somewhat tragic, but true.

I would like to conclude by stating that the effects were incredibly good, considering this is a film made by enthusiast whom I assume had only the smallest fraction of a typical Hollywood blockbuster budget at their disposal. The CG wasn't always perfect (look closely at the early bridge scenes, it's blue screen), but often better than what we get to see in Hollywood movies. So hats off to the CG guys.

So a well-meant, nice attempt, and I do hope they keep making movies, but this one just doesn't deliver.