Review of Mysterious Skin (2005) by Christopher L — 09 Apr 2010

This is a very powerful movie, a very dark movie, and, in many ways, a relevant movie. If I were reviewing Mysterious Skin as the book, I would say that it is fairly ordinary. Countless young adult books have dealt with rape, hustling, and child abuse. However, as a film, I have never seen anything quite like this. It is relentless. The camera and the story does not shy away from anything, and, like Precious, this is a movie that is powerful because of that. One of things I really, not "liked", but found interesting, is that most of the unsavories were ordinary guys. They were not played up to be mosters. They actions were awful, but the people themselves were perfectly normal. I liked this because it is eye opening in a way, but also, we are all capable or mosterous things. We may not molest children, but most everyone has been enraged by some trite event or intentionally misled or decieved someone. We've all done horrid things and we are all "normal" The baddies are not going to stick out like a skeleton jumping from the closet. They are just like you, just like me.

The only thing I did not like about Mysterious Skin was that I really did not feel emotionally attatched to the happenings. Everybody says it is hard to watch, but I really didn't care. I just didn't really believe in the story. Everything stayed within the proximity of my computor screen. That doesn't change the fact that this is a wonderful film. I would have to say that it is a "Must See Film" despite the fact that it is not entertainling, or visual, or clever, or anything else that you can reach out and grab and love.