Review of Things Behind the Sun (2001) by Eduardo C — 14 May 2005

[font=Century Gothic][color=red]"Things Behind the Sun" is an autobiographical movie from Allison Anders(Grace of My Heart; Gas Food Lodging) that was first shown on Showtime. It starts out in Cocoa Beach, Fl with Sherry McGrale(Kim Dickens, in a brave, great performance) making an annual drunken odyssey to a house. Now she is on probation under the watchful eyes of her caring manager(Don Cheadle, yet another typically excellent performance). Sherry has written a song about being raped as a young girl which is making the rounds of college radio stations.(This reminded me of Tori Amos' song "Me and a Gun.") Meanwhile, Owen(Gabriel Mann), a journalist for Vinyl Fetish Magazine in Los Angeles, claims to know who raped Sherry and returns to Florida.[/color][/font].

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[font=Century Gothic][color=#ff0000]"Things Behind the Sun" is a very powerful movie about rape and how it negatively effects everybody involved, even years down the road. I especially liked the fact that it does not shy away from some of the more unpleasant parts of the story, thus keeping the story even more real. It does falter a bit towards the end, though. Allison Anders makes a better use of music here than she did in "Grace of My Heart". Eric Stoltz is extremely good in a short role, playing a convict.(And I apologize if I insinuated that he could not handle a serious dramatic role in my review of "House of Mirth." Apparently he can...) And it's nice to see Patsy Kensit in anything.[/color][/font].

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