Mysterious Skin -- Towards the end the theatre was deathly quiet, yet...

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...there were fifty people in the audience for Sunday's second matinee.
Try to forget that the film, like the book, involves two unpopular
(to say the least) themes: young gays and UFO abductions. Really, it
isn't about either. Those are just hooks.
What Gregg Araki (and novelist Scott Heim) have done, is create a
character-based work of fiction that, like Mystic River, moves us
gradually into their world and then lowers the boom. Also like
Mystic River the narrative is linear (although there are two
narrators) and we get a bare minimum of directorial tricks. Araki
does provide some extremely short scenes, even vignette shots, but
I felt they worked.
When the threads finally come together -- when the theatre is
silent and when I was shivvering (wasn't the AC either) -- you'll
learn that your attention, like the characters', has been
misdirected and what it's all about is something else again.
Simply stunning. And the acting was superb in every role.
(Disclaimer: I know the author of the original novel, and was
privileged to call him up just outside the theatre to discuss it...
Among other things there was a plothole and I wondered if it was in
the book. No, it wasn't... and he hadn't noticed!)
clark
PS The novel was published, oh, ten years ago. Scott had developed
a screenplay and shopped it around but without a bite... until
Araki saw it. At that point the director wrote his own adaptation,
to which Scott's response was, "Damn! It's better than mine! *And*
it puts more of the book in."

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Parts Connexion

Topic - Mysterious Skin -- Towards the end the theatre was deathly quiet, yet... - clarkjohnsen 11:08:02 07/11/05 (3)

Ever see "The Reflecting Skin"? Viggo's first film. * - mr grits 11:37:36 07/11/05 (2)

You sent me into a tailspin... I thought you meant Vigo... Jean Vigo. - Victor Khomenko 13:21:29 07/11/05 (0)

Noop. nt - clarkjohnsen 11:46:41 07/11/05 (0)

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