These are some of the weakest scenes in the film, because they do not accurately portray child prostitution, gay or straight, only gay male fantasies about rough, anonymous sex with strangers. All the johns are buff, well off, and want to fuck teen boys. This tendency toward adult gay male fantasy over real childhood prostitution also infects the scenes with Coach, for, as Neil returns, and soon guides Brian through the time he was abused, Brian recalls that it was Coach, not aliens, who abused him. Unfortunately, as well handled as this setup is, the payoff tanks, for Coach, it seems, wanted the boys to fist him.
Now, having had a childhood that was involved in the sex industry, having known straight and queer child prostitutes and runaways, and having, decades later, worked in a county court that required me to often read the accounts of sexual abuse claims regarding male pedophiles, the fact is that Araki’s screenplay (however much influenced by Heim’s book) is pure fantasy — likely influenced by both the novelist’s and filmmaker’s desires, rather than reality. The film ends on Christmas Eve, with the two boys breaking into Coach’s old home (occupied by new people), and Neil revealing the truth. The final shot ends with an overhead pullback and voiceover that is excellent. The best part of that scene is how, when immediately seeing the blue Christmas lighting outside the old home of Coach, Brian’s whole invented tale of UFO abduction instantly vanishes, and he realizes he was sexually abused. All he needs are the details from Neil. In an odd way, while the content manifestly differs, the emotional story arc of Mysterious Skin is quite reminiscent of It’s A Wonderful Life, with a frustrated character living life in a fog, over a past trauma, only to come to realize his truth on Christmas Eve. That the truths are differing in content and impact is true, but, despite that, one feels that Brian is all the better for having learnt said truth.
Despite the film’s overt departures from reality regarding the homosexuality and prostitution aspects, it does handle the matter of UFO abductees, and their psychological problems, quite well, and Mary Lynn Rajskub, as a deglamorized Avalyn, handles her easily parodic role with aplomb and convincing dignity. The look on her face after Brian disallows her to fellate him is golden.
What also works well, in the script, is the realistic treatment of the pedophile in the picture. Yes, in a real sense, Coach is a criminal - perhaps even a predator - and certainly the fisting trope is over the top (even as it psychologically and emotionally dovetails perfectly with the moment Brian inserts his hand into the bloodless incision of a dead cow that Avalyn claims was mutilated by aliens), but it’s clear that Coach is not ‘evil,’ per se, and that, in some warped way, he really does care for Neil, and the other boys he ‘loves.’ I’m not taking a pro-pedophilia nor pro-NAMBLA position here, and clearly the eight-year-olds are in no position to sexually consent. That being said, however, the film aptly shows the folly and lunacy of trying to link some pedophiles with all serial killers, terrorists, or hitmen — killers with no redeemable qualities. Yes, there are pedophiles who violently and willfully sexually abuse and physically harm children, but they are the exceptions, likely, and most male pedophiles (at least the ones I’ve been unfortunate to know and/or study on the job) are more like Coach, in that Coach is not evil, just a lonely and fucked up guy who has never properly adjusted to his homosexual desires, and via society’s prohibitions and scorn, somehow sublimate those feelings into his own hidden way to get affection. This does not cleanse him of a crime, but it does remove the pedophilia he displays from some monstrous evil into an explicable human activity. The film should be commended for its treatment of such.
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