detroitrockscene
This movie had potential but it seems it was mainly a vehicle for the director to try to exorcise her personal demons. The male lead spends the vast majority of the film mewling and whining ineffectually about what he failed to do as a child while failing (again) to provide any consolation to the victim. Perhaps he was a projection of the director's feeling of helplessness, but it makes for an annoying and unsympathetic character. The saving grace is a good soundtrack made up of obscure but wonderful 60's classics and some great new songs. If the musicians had been anything like the male lead, they would have moped about what they hadn't recorded or written, let down everyone who depended on them, and stood by doing and saying nothing while pretending to help.
Cosmoeticadotcom
The best way to kill a technically well made film is through a bad screenplay. Exhibit 1A: filmmaker Allison Anders' 2003 Showtime film Things Behind The Sun. Ostensibly based upon Anders' real life 'trauma' of being raped as a child, the film wallows in every manner of cliché on the subject of victimhood imaginable, as well as wasting some fine performances, save that of the ever PC and increasingly hyperbolic Don Cheadle, whose performance here presages his terrible role in last year's Oscar-winning Crash.Yet, for all the potential this film has- and which a better and/or more objective director may have well exploited, it bogs down in the sort of Feminist PC clichés that made Monster such a bad film. The men are either unrepentant beasts- like Dan and his rapist pals, or wimpy excuses for men- like Owen and Chuck, straight out of the Alice Walker school of misandry. The film even ends with a trite dedication to Anders' long dead grandmother, described as a rape 'survivor,' not 'victim.'Yet, despite this seeming sensitivity, instead of showing how the vast majority of rape victims actually do adjust, mature, and cope with their violation, then move on, Anders indulges the Hollywood cliché of the eternal victim who cannot move on. This is, however, in keeping with the film's immature schizophrenic attitudes toward sex and psychology. As example, it also has too many pointless T&A scenes of sex, yet no male genitalia. Yes, we know Owen is impotent, so why do we need to see him try banging two different women, and failing? That such gratuitous, and sexist, sex is in this film is startling since the rest of the film is so PC. And, as a whole, the film is far too long at two full hours, and could lose much of its first forty minutes by just getting Owen back to Florida, and cutting the scenes of him shooting blanks. Yet, if that were not enough, there is the bizarre threesome scene with Sherry and two of her groupies, climaxing to furious rock music- an obvious steal from the famous drug scene of Martin Sheen in Apocalypse Now, to the music of The Doors' The End. Even worse, though, is the whole device of the flashbacks tells too much of the story, and lessens the impact of Owens' telegraphed guilt, as well the impact of the film.Things Behind The Sun is, ultimately, an example of the old good intentions lead to….trope, and fails as a work of art, despite glimmers of breaking through its self-imposed political strictures. In that way it recapitulates its main characters' failures to move beyond themselves. If only such a trope had been ameliorative. Ah, well, there's always tomorrow, Allison.
solomon_grundy
...is something Allison Anders expresses in her films, and wow, filming in the house where she herself was raped as a child shows her engagement with the movie. It's her compassionate and tough look at how many lives rape irreversibly affects. Films about rape or child molestation aren't probably going to be box office smashes anytime soon, but don't deny yourself this beautiful film just because the subject material is uncomfortable. Great dialogue, strong acting (especially by Kim Dickens and Don Cheadle), and the usual great script and direction by Alison Andres. Listen to the DVD commentary afterwards for more on this amazing film and the artist behind its creation, Ms. Andres.
Gary Murphy
I tend to prefer character-driven movies with strong plots. In that sense, this movie score highly. Kim Dickens turns in a passionate performance as a self-destructive women trying to reclaim her soul after it was taken from her in an adolescent rape. Don Cheadle turns in yet another great performance. Wow, what a great actor. Eric Stoltz has little screen time, but he does a lot with it. Again, what a great actor.This movie suffers a little on the technical front. There are scenes that could have been edited out because they failed to enhance the story line. At times the direction seemed to be a lackluster. Neither of these hurt the movie that much, but it does not quite reach its full potential. It is still worth seeing. I enjoyed it.
