Gregg Araki's "Mysterious Skin" is a film that dares to point out the lasting effects of what a pedophile will inflict on a young person that will last a whole lifetime. Mr. Araki has adapted Scott Heim's novel with great style. In spite of the strong material presented in the film, it's never lewd or cheap, or in your face, that perhaps in another director's hands could have been exploited for shock value.<br /><br />The film follows Neil, a young man who has been sexually abused by his little league coach. At the same time, there is a parallel story of another young man, Brian, who can't comprehend the way his life has turned when something happened to him a long time ago without being able to understand, having lost memory of a few hours in a fateful summer day years ago, when the same man abused him.<br /><br />In Brian's case, his life has been scarred because the trauma caused by that monster to his young mind, has created havoc in his life. He is not sexually active; sex does not seem to interest him. Not even a young woman, Avalyn, who is interested in him, is able to get him aroused. Avalyn takes Brian to see a dead cow, in a scene that is something not to be believed, that holds part of the hidden secret this troubled soul is carrying with him.<br /><br />Neil, who had a boyish crush on the coach, grows up fully aware he is gay. Neil is sexually active in the little Kansas town he lives. The only outlet for him is to follow Wendy, his best friend, to New York, where he becomes a male hustler practicing what appears to be unprotected sex, and at the end being beaten by an brutish trick that almost could have killed him.<br /><br />Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays Neil. This young actor kept reminding us of a young Keanu Reeves. Brady Corbet is Brian. Both young actors do an amazing work portraying their characters. Elizabeth Shue is seen briefly as Neil's single mother. Michelle Trachtenberg and Jeffrey Licon are seen as Wendy and Eric, who are Neil's best friends in the small town.<br /><br />This is an important film as it reveals to what extent some people will go to harm and corrupt small children. Mr. Araki is to be congratulated for bringing the story to the screen.