Gregg Araki’s film adaption of Scott Heim’s 1995 novel Mysterious Skin is a heartbreaking and gut-wrenching tale of acceptance, mourning, and forgiveness. Mysterious Skin stars a young Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Brady Corbet as Neil McCormick and Brian Lackey respectfully. Only moments into the film, the watcher is shown that Neil and Brian had been molested by their baseball coach at a young age. Though this trauma involved both of the boys, Mysterious Skin illustrates the difference in pain and how they choose to deal with it. Neil becomes a male prostitute, sleeping with mainly older men while being very sexually irresponsible. In turn, Brian secludes himself. He becomes more shy and reserved and believes his difference to be an effect of a past alien abduction.
Mysterious Skin’s two narratives weave in and out of each other, depicting the effects that such trauma can create, as well as how those traumas affect others. As Brian searches for Neil and also for answers, Neil dives deeper into the world of sex, moving to New York City to become a street hustler. Sex is central to the movie’s themes in relation to the sexual abuse and in other forms as well. The beginning shows a young, effeminate Neil showing early “signs” of homosexuality. By establishing Neil’s character this soon, the audience is able to see the effects on Neil more clearly, allowing his actions to seem much more reasonable. The abuse creates a perception of sexuality within Neil that is both manipulative and destructive. He begins to see his molestation as normal and in doing so begins to act out in very sexual ways. Brian’s elusive, shy nature creates a sexuality that is never quite defined; in completely normal social interactions with women and men, Brian is very quiet and often panics; he is never placed into a voluntary sexual position in which he feels comfortable. In this way, Mysterious Skin proposes asexuality or possible sex-repulsiveness to the audience. It’s proposed as something completely normal and also something that can exist due to circumstance.
Mysterious Skin is a movie that is crafted rather than simply created. Everything in the movie comes back around, from the music to the seemingly simple blue light at the very beginning. With purpose like that, it’s hard to be perfect. Any film struggles with maintaining a completely sound story, but Mysterious Skin makes up for all of its errors. Any plot holes are quickly covered up by phenomenal acting, a brilliant score, and cinematography that makes the characters feel as close as family to the audience. To shoot the scenes involving the small children, Araki filmed the children creating a separate film of their own, under their parent’s full knowledge and consent. Using scenes from that film to tell the story of the boys’ molestation, Araki protected the child actors from sexual situations and the heavy nature of the film itself. The compassion, planning, and hard work put into Mysterious Skin takes the movie to another level.
The difference in the two boys’ stories is what Mysterious Skin is really all about. Society perceives victims of sexual abuse as people who are emotionally stunted and incapable of relating to normal society. Mysterious Skin shows two different stories, each fully mapping out the pain and suffering caused by these events. With a story and soundtrack that tugs at every heartstring, Mysterious Skin creates an experience that can’t be duplicated. In the final scene, Brian sobs into Neil’s lap in a moment of realization and forgiveness: not for the coach, not for Neil, but for Brian himself. He forgives himself for holding such pain inside and against himself. In this, Mysterious Skin turns this cowardly victim trope around, showing that recovery and hope is possible, even in the darkest places.
