One long caterwaul for mercy, ABUSE is a raw indictment of child abuse. Thanks to its sporadic awkwardness, the viewer is offered the respite of a certain aesthetic distance from its often stomach-churning themes and situations.
At St. Matthew's Hospital, an intern notifies Larry Porter (Richard Ryder), a thesis candidate in film, about a teenager who has been rushed to the emergency room with evidence of parental beating. Larry senses that this battered 14 year old, Thomas Carroll (Raphael Sbarge), could be the
centerpiece of his film about society's neglect of battered children.
Tentatively agreeing to meet Larry on Sundays, Thomas opens up to the older gay documentarian, not only revealing war stories about his punishing home life, but admitting that he, too, is gay. Thomas bonds with Larry, who still views the adolescent solely as a hot property for his project.
Ignoring his college's directive to edit Thomas out of the film for legal reasons, Larry begins a sexual affair with the vulnerable lad. But he doesn't know how to remove Thomas from an escalation of physical injuries, including cigarette burns.
After viewing a rough cut of Larry's film, Thomas finds the courage to strike his father. But his defiance only pushes his parents to worse abuses with a cigarette lighter. On the day of his movie's school showcase, Larry runs away with Thomas and abandons his promising career.
In a complex manner, ABUSE indicts domestic violence while questioning the sexual exploitation of the teenager by the older homosexual. To many viewers, the film presents a scenario in which Thomas is doomed either way.
Problematically, ABUSE is so prejudiced in favor of its own solution that it never sets up alternatives, such as Thomas running away alone or entering foster care. While outing the homefront abuse syndrome, the film enters a gray area in which adult Larry behaves irresponsibly toward an
impressionable adolescent. Ultimately, the movie is a love story about two damaged souls, with the adult taking parental responsibility for the child.
The film suffers from a clumsy stab at documentary realism, with talking heads spouting psychobabble in Larry's film-within-a-film. Also, the script treats the parents as faceless monsters rather that giving them human dimensions. The whole project is further damaged by the rampant inferiority of
performances.
Nevertheless, ABUSE is an important film because of its indictment of child victimization. It is a risk-taking love story that pierces societal norms and attitudes. (Graphic violence, adult situations, sexual situations.) leave a comment
