Powerful

good back-story, and good acting

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

It's not uncommon to see films about childhood that show life prom their point of view and incorporate an element of fantasy in the process, but it's rare that the vision be this bleak and the fantasy so dark. Little Seth has a lot to deal with ... his friends are disappearing and turning up murdered. His father is suspected due to a past homosexual indiscretion. His mother is a crazy person obsessed with the smell of gasoline and the return of his elder brother (Viggo Mortensen) from WWII. His neighbor, a very depressed widow, is a vampire ... and she's probably killing his brother. His dead friend returns as some sort of rotting fetal angel. Friendly leather boys roam the plains in a shiny car.Dick Pope's cinematography is beautiful. Fans of David Lynch want to see this, yet it has it's own very unique tone.

I tried this movie because I saw IMDb list one this day giving this movie a number 1 Foreigner horror movie. The idea of a kid having to fight alone against a vampire is not really original but in a rural setting of United States can end up being interesting. And it was the number 1 movie, again, even outpacing the Spanish The Orphanage (which I totally consider excellent). OK, I should have read the summary better because I didn't know how much wrong I was. This movie is very idiotic, from a logical standpoint. There's way too many important points thrown in the story that leads to absolutely anywhere, and I can't stop thinking "where this is going?". Let me spoil you the fun: the movie is a story of a bunch of pedophiles, running in a black car, kidnapping and killing kids in a remote rural neighborhood. The main character is a 8 years old boy that end up believing that her neighbor is a vampire. He is taunted by the pedophiles, he witness his friend being taken by the gang, but he continues convict that her neighbor, an around thirties lonesome lady, is culprit for all the dead bodies. I know that some people that likes the movie will say that the story is a creative analogy to a little boy imagination in a story of sexual abuse to kids, but the problem is that the main character is too smart to be so blind. The way that the scenes depict the characters forces to not understand why the boy is so attached to his imagination. I can understand that the grown ups doesn't help either, being 1 lunatic worse than the other. On the good side, the movie has a photography very morbid for an always sunny environment which made recall the photography from Texas Chainsaw Massacre (specially for the palette of colors chosen). The score is also strange, because is full of violins and cello, that brings a drama vibe to the scenes that I found it doesn't fit to a thriller story, but it has some poetry on it. Anyway, I really don't understand how people can like a movie that is so non-sensical like this. It begins without any sense and it finish worse. Go figure..

Jeremy Cooper plays Seth Dove, an impressionable and imaginative youngster living in the American prairies of the 1950s. He comes to believe that a mysterious local English widow named Dolphin Blue (Lindsay Duncan) must be a vampire, based on what his father Luke (Duncan Fraser) has related to him. (The old man is a fan of pulp novels.) Therefore, Seth becomes alarmed when his older brother Cameron (Viggo Mortensen), a military veteran, falls in love with the widow."The Reflecting Skin" is a striking, unusual film, marking the filmmaking debut for Philip Ridley, a British playwright, author, and screenwriter. It's definitely not to all tastes, and certainly not for people expecting a traditional horror film. It depicts a stark world, seen through this childs' eyes, in which adults are often extremely messed up and children are victimized. Ridley's dialogue is literate and amusing, and the actors do seem to be enjoying themselves reciting these lines. The atmosphere is very impressive, with Ridley taking advantage of all these open spaces and endless fields of yellow. Dick Pope did the very efficient cinematography. Another memorable element is the music score by Nick Bicat. It's haunting and helps to draw you into this story that is sure to get under the skin of some of its viewers.Fans of Mortensen should be aware that he doesn't show up for over 40 minutes, but he provides an engaging presence as a young man with little patience for his kid brother. Duncan is absolutely amazing and her character truly does seem to be living in some other universe. Sheila Moore chews the scenery as the shrewish Dove mother, Canadian character actor Fraser is fine as the father with a grim, sordid past, and young Cooper offers a believable performance.Consistently unpredictable, "The Reflecting Skin" does have a fair bit going for it, and it's worth a look for buffs searching for something different and interesting.Seven out of 10.

From Author turned filmmaker "Phillip Ridley" comes his mythical and mysterious film debut "The Reflective Skin" a strange and unsettling look at loneliness and loss of innocence. Comparisons to David Lynch will always come about if a film is in anyway odd or weird but this is certainly no imitation more in style with Twin Peaks to which this was released before.The story is told through the eyes of a not so innocent 8 year old boy named Seth set in rural America in the 1950's, with world war II still imprinted on the mind of the citizens. After his father tells him stories of Vampires, he lets his imagination get the better of him and becomes convinced that the widow Dolphin Blue (Lindsay Duncan) who lives up the road is a vampire. He tries to dissuade his brother Cam (Viggo Mortensen) from getting involved with her. He deals with abusive figures around town in an unforgiving environment. Children start to go missing and might no why, but could it be the vampire?From the opening scenes of beautiful imagery and the striking golden corn fields I knew I was in for something surreal and fantastical, something different. Scenes of Seth and friends blowing up a frog with a straw then making it explode, twin girls walking down a path with a dead seagull in their hands clucking while looking on intently could come straight from a nightmare and the latter scene especially can send shivers down your spine.The dark tone never shifts it stays there and it lingers in the mind until well after the film has finished. The unsettling and melancholic atmosphere is aided by the score and is effective in the more poignant moments.The child acting is far from great however and at times can take away from some of the seriousness of the drama but for me never spoiled the horrors unfolding on screen. Viggo Mortensen is very good in his role playing a character who is also fairly damaged by his environment after fighting in the pacific islands.Overall The Reflective Skin is worth seeking out, it may not be for everyone but everyone who does enjoy can take something different out of it. It's haunting with stunning cinematography and landscapes if you are a fan of surreal images in film you are in luck.