Beauty Mark

Child abuse in any for should be completely forbidden. No child should be a victim of child abuse, it should not exist. Unfortunately, we know that there are a lot of child abuse victims out there in this world. No matter if they have been sexually molested, verbally or physical abused, no child should go through any kind of abuse. I have a female friend that told me many years ago, that she was molested by a family member when she was just a child. I remember how angry i was, and i could not hold back my tears. I wish i could have known this, so i could stop this evil man. I won´t go in to any details of what happened to him, but she lives with the memories every day. Nothing can take all the pain away, but i will always be there for her, whenever she needs to talk. For me, she is a very brave person who speak about this, but i know she does this so she can support victims that have walked in her shoes. All over the news we hear almost every week about molested children, all over the world. And this never seems to stop. One of the biggest molestation scandals has to be the sexual abuse scandal in Boston archdiocese. When the newspaper The Boston Globe published an investigation about priests in Catholic Church around the city of Boston, the whole world was shocked. Around 90 priests were found having sexually abused children, and this was just in the city of Boston. Of course not all of these priests were convicted, but they should have been. Catholic church is known for protecting pedophiles, even if they know that this is wrong. A film was made based on this scandal in Boston, known as Spotlight, released in 2015. A really strong and emotional film, that tells the story of how The Boston Globe team known as Spotlight, struggled to get the truth out, what the Catholic Church have been hiding for many years. The movie known as Spotlight, is directed by Tom McCarthy, and this is his best film so far as a director. He tells this story so well, with really powerful performances from the cast such as Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Rachel Adams, Stanley Tucci, Liev Schreiber and many more. Spotlight is a must see for all ages, a very powerful film. I recently started reading about independent films, and came across a movie called Beauty Mark. The reviews seemed to be really good, and i also found out that this film have won several awards, such as Audience Award: Narrative Feature at the Austin Film Festival, and Best Film Award at the San Luis Obispo International Film Award. This film have won other awards as well, so i just had to see Beauty Mark to see if this could be one of the highlights of this year. Is it possible that Beauty Mark is one of the strongest films of this year, or is this film not as good as we were hoping it would be ?

Angie Simms ( Auden Thornton ) is a young single mother, raising her child Trey ( Jameson Fowler ), and takes care of her selfish alcoholic mother Ruth Ann ( Catherine Curtine ). They live in a house, with serious electric problems. The electrician can´t fix it, it is too damaged and too dangerous to live in this house. Their house is later condemned, and Angie has to find money to buy a new place, or she will be homeless with her son and her alcoholic mother. Angie is suffering all her life, with the memories of her being sexually molested by Bruce ( Jeff Kober ). She confronts Pastor Hodges ( Deirdre Lovejoy ) about what happened to her, when she was a child in this church, but gets rejected. Eventually, Pastor Hodges realize that she is telling the truth, and help her seek out another victim, to hear her story. Angie does not have the money to get a new place, so as desperate as she is, she turns to her sexual abuser Bruce for money. Will Angie ever get a better life, or is she stuck forever in a world of misery ?

One of the things i noticed right away with the film Beauty Mark, is how much misery this film is filled with. You have a young woman, who is struggling with her life, trying to survive for her son, and taking care of her alcoholic mother, while remembering being sexually abused as a child. Just imagine how much sadness there is to all of this ? How do you handle all of this without breaking down completely ? After watching Beauty Mark, i have to say that this is one of the movies that have a very deep impact on me. The acting performances in this film are outstanding, and the characters feel so real. Let´s talk about the actors performances for a while . The lead character known as Angie, played fantastic by actor Auden Thornton. She really digs deep into her character and all the shit she is going through in her life, and she manage to capture all of this with body language, face expressions and powerful dialogue. I really hope Auden Thornton will be nominated in several awards in film festivals, she deserves to be. Angie´s alcoholic mother Ruth Ann, played by actor Catherine Curtin, is a performance you will not forget. Catherine´s take on this alcoholic mother is very emotional, to see a mother loose every hope of happiness, and don´t care about anything. Angie´s sexually abuser Bruce, played by actor Jeff Kober, manage to find a balance of how a predator works, and what makes him try and take control of his victims. He also does a great performance, even if you are disgusted by his character. I also love the performance of Angie´s friend Lorraine, played by actor Laura Bell Boundy. Her character is probably the only person who really cares about Angie, and this is also one of the reasons why this makes this film so sad. Some of the scenes when Angie is struggling to let people know, she was molested by a church worker, is heartbreaking. There is a scene when she tries to get help from the church she went to, and she is asked to be quiet. And this is where she breaks out her anger, to let the church know she was molested, and she is not going to be quiet no more. I was emotionally touched by that scene, since the performance of actor Auden Thornton is incredible. Another really emotional and disturbing scene, is when she goes back to her child molester Bruce, to ask for money, so she and her can get a new home before their house is condemned. Imagine being that desperate ? Director Harris Doran have made one of the strongest independent films i have seen for a long time. He clearly wanted to show a realistic story on a victim of sexual abuse, and he does it with a very clear view from the victim´s perspective. It is a very tragic portrait of a woman who can´t get out of her endless misery, and seems to be trapped without any hope. Support the film makers on Beauty Mark and buy the DVD, films like these needs to be seen, to raise awareness that we can´t let child abuse continue.  I have no problem saying this, Beauty Mark is one of the strongest films i have seen this year.

Rating: DDDD