Director: Peter Bogdanovich
Year Released: 1985
Rating: 2.0
Mask is a portrayal of Rocky Sawyer (Eric Stoltz), a young lad who was born with some rare disease that causes his skull to expand due to calcium deposits and horribly deforms him in the process, placing stress and pressure on his home life and emotionally fragile mother. Plot-wise, there's little there aside from a few subplots and a few arguments - the film tries way too hard to turn Rocky into a conformist trapped in an outcast's body: he collects baseball cards, he never fights with anyone, he's constantly upbeat and chipper. His mother, played by Cher, should be the real focus, as her character has the most depth of anyone in there - Bogdanovich uses the close-up to show her unflinching but concerned, depressive mood; one of the truest statements about her character comes in an awkward scene where she hires a prostitute for her son. The relationship she has with Sam Elliott is somewhat secondary and never fleshed out; alternately, the mingling between Rocky and the blind girl (Laura Dern) is entirely too manipulative to be effective (it's cautiously mapped out to give the ending maximum impact). Of course most people are prejudiced against what looks different from them - isn't that human nature?
