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Skin

Generally favorable reviews
Based on 16 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 0 votes
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Movie Info
Genre(s): Drama | Mystery
Written by: Helen Crawley
Directed by: Anthony Fabian
Release Date:
Theatrical: October 30, 2009
Running Time: 107 minutes, Color
Origin: UK | South Africa
Language(s): English | Zulu
Summary
RATING: PG-13 for thematic material, some violence and sexuality
Starring Sophie Okonedo, Sam Neill, Alice Krige, Tony Kgoroge, and Ella Ramangwane
Skin is one of the most moving stories to emerge from apartheid South Africa: Sandra Laing is a black child born in the 1950s to white Afrikaners, unaware of their black ancestry. Her parents are rural shopkeepers serving the local black community, who lovingly bring her up as their ‘white’ little girl. But at the age of ten, Sandra is driven out of white society. The film follows Sandra’s thirty-year journey from rejection to acceptance, betrayal to reconciliation, as she struggles to define her place in a changing world - and triumphs against all odds. (Elysian Films)
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database Official Studio Website
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
This great film by Anthony Fabian tells this story through the eyes of a happy girl who grows into an outsider.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Walter Addiego
Director Anthony Fabian lets the story sell itself, and it does so partly on the strength of the lead performance by Sophie Okonedo.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan
If you didn't know that it was based on a true story, Skin would be a little hard to believe.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer
Inherently dramatic but needed a stronger director than Anthony Fabian, who overdoes understatement.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Andrea Gronvall
Ella Ramangwane gives a fine performance as the young Sandra.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Michael Rechtshaffen
The fact that it's actually based on a true story adds an extra layer of poignancy, heightened further by another superb Sophie Okonedo performance.
Read Full Review >Variety Dennis Harvey
One of the more bizarre illustrations of racial injustice under apartheid is dramatized in Skin.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Ella Taylor
This workmanlike, but enormously moving, movie makes the case that apartheid really does control her life, even her decision to rebel and get involved with a black man.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey
Skin is both exasperatingly choppy and exceptionally moving.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Joe Neumaier
A little more variation in the script, though, might have yielded something truly great.
Read Full Review >New York Post V.A. Musetto
The direction is never more than conventional, with a tear-inducing finale better suited to a TV soap opera.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Manohla Dargis
Alas, Mr. Fabian, directing his first feature-length fiction film, uses a club whenever a feather would do. He also mishandles the actors, in particular Mr. Neill and Ms. Okonedo, both of whom have been incomparably better elsewhere.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Betsy Sharkey
Too many of the characters are either good or bad, and that loss of nuance is missed.
Read Full Review >Time Out New York Kevin B. Lee
The story is too rich in incident for Fabian, whose episodic TV-movie approach speeds through Laing’s lifetime of abuse.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Wesley Morris
It’s a fascinating story: part genetic mystery, part socio-racial tragedy. However, Laing’s life, despite its inherent melodrama, does not automatically lend itself to the screen.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 0.0 (out of 10) based on 0 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
