Movie of the Day: January 22, 2003

IMDb Movie of the Day
The Reflecting Skin hones in on the Doves, a traumatized rural American family living in the wake of World War II. Seth Dove (Jeremy Cooper), way too young to understand the war's impact on his family, is neglected by his mother (Sheila Moore), an angry woman shamed by a small-town scandal involving her husband (Duncan Fraser) and one of Seth's friends. This leaves Seth and to fend for himself in an unforgiving environment, where his imagination becomes his way of interpreting events, making him as lost in the world as everyone else around him. Pulp fiction and his father's creepy stories convince Seth that the mysterious Dolphin Blue (Lindsay Duncan) is a vampire, and when his brother Cameron (Viggo Mortensen), who's just home from duty in Japan, falls for her, Seth knows his worst nightmare is coming true. Writer-director Philip Ridley creates the type of freaky tension that first cries out David Lynch's name (and, yes, there are random characters and scenes a-plenty), but the entire film is more like a Wyeth painting brought to life. Cinematographer Dick Pope, who filmed Life is Sweet the same year as Skin, captures the yellows and browns of the wheat fields that encircle Seth and threaten to overcome him; Ridley's obdurate direction echoes the feeling, slowly enveloping you in Seth's world and his hyper-stylized imaginings. (more)

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