In Her Skin (2009)

The 2009 Australian film "In Her Skin" is based on a true story of a mentally unstable woman and her obsession with a neighbor girls perfect life. Its a story of two families dealing with heartbreak, class structures, self esteem and who is to blame.Guy Pearce and Miranda Otto play Mike and Elizabeth Barber the upper middle class parents of Rachel, a 15 year old Dancer, who goes missing after accepting a job from an estranged older friend named Caroline, played fearlessly by Ruth Bradley. The girls exist at opposite ends of the class and popularity spectrum. Rachel is young and beautiful with and equally beautiful boyfriend. She has two loving parents and a normal home life. While Caroline, who is in her early to mid 20s, lives alone in an apartment always on the brink of some kind of mental breakdown. Her parents are divorced and her father has long given up hope of having a "normal" daughter. He has had learn to just deal with her craziness after having to bail her out of situations her whole life. Caroline works a dull and dreary office job with little to no motivation to do anything more with her life. Rachel has been a sort of obsession and role model of hers every since she babysat for her years back. An idealized version of what she wish she could be. Caroline feels trapped and cursed to roam the earth in her overweight and unattractive body. She is unloved and unwanted. We can only watch as the clock ticks forward to an enviable breakdown. After Rachel doesn't return home one afternoon. Her parent start to worry and call her friends and the dance studio with no luck. They go to the police but are devastated to be told that Rachel must have ran away or is just out on a bender and will probably show up in a day or two. With all of the other more important cases, they can't be wasting their precious recourses on a missing teenage girl. Mike and Elizabeth do eventually find an investigator dedicated to finding what happen to Rachel and it all leads back to Caroline.The film is uniquely structured in that it is split up into three sections dealing with the individual characters view points and personal struggles. After a brief intro we start with a title card "Mike and Elizabeth", Then go on to "Caroline", then finally "Rachel". The resulting story is raw, honest, and heartbreaking. It is superbly acted by all involved and unlike most Hollywood studio movies doesn't offer any easy answers.

I would have rated this higher, but it's hard to watch because of the situation and the characters. It's a true story....if it was fiction, the situation and characters would be different and it would be a "better" movie. Earth is like that, often....VERY difficult!Caroline has a major problem(s). The only information I have to go on is the movie, and how the characters were portrayed in the movie. I don't have any information about Caroline or her family, specifically. Caroline's problem(s) could have been caused by an incident in her childhood, but, based on what I saw, that was not likely at all.This is what I don't like about the situation Caroline was in. A number of people knew she had a major problem(s), but they didn't know what to do about it, because of what we have been (wrongly) led to believe.Caroline's problem(s), in all likelihood, stem from a very traumatic experience that she had before she was born, in one of her previous lives. Her situation is similar to other people's, some of whom have been helped significantly by past-life regression therapy.Sometimes, there is nothing the parents, or anyone else can do to help a person within this life. If your loved one, or someone you know, has very serious problems, either physical or mental, which no one can find the answer to, I strongly recommend finding someone reputable and experienced who can try past life regression to see if that will help. If it doesn't help, that person will be no worse off.God wants us to try. Earth is VERY difficult, and all you have control over is how you try.God Bless Namastecliff DXB

I have always been a fan of Guy Pearce (who will always be remembered as Mike from Neighbours in the UK)who is an actor that always seems to appear in decent films. On that basis I decided to watch this small Australian film.The film covers a real life case of a 15 year old girl who inexplicably goes missing from home. We see the reaction of her parents the excellent Pearce and Miranda Otto as they struggle to get the police to take the disappearance seriously. The film then concentrates on of the suspects a former babysitter played with chilling menace by Ruth Bradley and her father played by the dependable Sam Neill. The final part and weakest part of the film follows the missing girl.The subject matter doesn't really make for happy viewing and for that i cannot bring myself to give it a higher mark, yet it is an excellently made film and one of the best of it's type I have seen. It certainly deserves a wider audience.Be warned that one of the scenes in particular is extremely disturbing and may upset a lot of viewers.

wow, one of the best films i've seen in a while.Well acted, compelling, totally draws you in. Didn't know it was based on true events.Why have i not seen this film before now? We see big big stars churning out movies that have no substance or credibility. Absolutely a must see,dropped through the "same old movies that sell" net.Fantastic and understated acting from a very well known older cast. The younger characters, Caroline and Rachelle, were believable and very watchable. The actual murder scene was very disturbing, but you couldn't take your eyes off frightening Caroline, and Rachelle fighting for her life. Brilliant in every sense of the word.