A complex movie of a difficult subject

Mysterious Skin (2004)

I remember reading a review of this movie few years ago which said this movie was horrible as it glorifies child abuse. Well, I got the chance to see it and wanted to find out what the fuss was all about. I have to say the reviewer was either a sick pervert or missed the point of the movie by a mile. It's an open minded look on a difficult subject. Glorifying it's definitely not, as the characters are clearly scarred for life. Just because it's not done with an in your face mentality while underlining everything twice, doesn't mean it would be in favour of the subject. I got the feeling it's more like a child could see it, it's something weird you can't understand. And then when you grow older it comes to haunt you, in one way or the other. Anyways it's quite disturbing subject and definitely not the easiest movie to watch. It's done really well with some quite awesome looking scenes, like the drive-in theatre scene. The music is really not what you'd expect in this kind of a story, but then again it adds to the disturbing feeling you get. The actors were also great and handled the difficult roles brilliantly. A bit of movie editing magic was clearly used to keep the subject matter away from the child actors, which makes the scenes feel even more disturbing. All in all I have respect for this movie as it takes on a subject not many would touch, brings it out in the open and handles it quite open mindedly. But really don't think I would want to see it again.
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