Mysterious Skin (Director: Gregg Araki, USA, 2004): Two boys share a dark secret until their paths cross again ten years later. If it sounds a bit melodramatic, well, it might be, except that the two boys smother their pain in different ways. Neil (Joseph Gordon-Levitt in a breakout performance) remembers everything about the summer when he was eight with a sort of romantic nostalgia. He loved the attention his baseball coach lavished on him, even all the special games they played when they were alone. He has grown into a sullen gay hustler who doesn’t let anyone get close to him emotionally. Brian (Brady Corbet) doesn’t remember the night where he “lost five hours,” and suffers nightmares, blackouts and nosebleeds for years. Over time, he becomes convinced that he was abducted by aliens. Since we know Neil’s story already, we know the truth is much more prosaic. This is a film that absolutely requires stellar performances from these two actors and they deliver.
Entwining Neil’s vivid remembrances with Brian’s efforts to remember any shred of detail gives the film an interesting structure, and the fact that the two boys don’t meet again until the very end of the film gives the ending a real emotional punch. Neil’s strange and sad nostalgia at the beginning about the events that happened to them fails by the end to hide the real damage that both boys have suffered. The ending does leave us with a kernel of hope, although there is a bit of voiceover that seems to come out of nowhere. The fact that the film is based on a novel by Scott Heim probably has something to do with the complicated multiple-flashback structure, and I think the screenplay’s attempt to simplify it shows a few seams in places.
Overall, though, the lead performances carry us over any bumps and make this an experience both disturbing and moving.
P.S. The “present-day” in the film is 1991, and so the soundtrack features a lot of great bands from the “Shoegaze” era: Slowdive, Curve, Ride, and the Cocteau Twins.
(8/10)