"Mysterious Skin" is about how childhood sexual abuse affected two childhood acquaintances as they matured to early adulthood -- While the film's exploration of childhood abuse is laudable, it was otherwise a disappointing film --

There is little mystery -- After the first few scenes, it is clear what is going on despite the persistence of an attempt to foster an absurd alien abduction fantasy on the audience -- That is an inescapable implication that Neil's' childhood abuse lead to his homosexuality and life as a hustler (although there is the suggestion that the molester was a father substitute, and that Neil himself exhibited earlier homosexual fantasies) -- Brian's loss of memory experiences are much more believable -- there are many examples of traumatic stress memory loss --

" ... the research on sexual abuse among GLBT populations is often misused to make inferences about causation. There are many reasons why this line of research is important but causation is not at the top. Sexual abuse is a profoundly disruptive experience for many people and may contribute to a variety of negative [sic] outcomes in adulthood. Finding appropriate clinical and ministry responses may be clouded by focusing on the trauma as a cause of same-sex attraction." (Warren Throckmorton, former Gay Conversion Therapist) --

" ... "The truth is that sexual abuse and sexuality are a million miles apart; they truly have nothing in common. Something as wonderful and beautiful as our sexuality could never have arisen out of something as ugly and painful as sexual abuse" (Kali Munto, Pandora's Project, 2002)