Transamerica Transsexual Tale Misses Opportunity to Inform and Educate Viewers
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Transamerica Transsexual Tale Misses Opportunity to Inform and Educate Viewers
Transamerica - 1 Star (Terrible)There are easier films to review than productions involving alternative life styles, and Transamerica is an example. I purposely saw this film and reviewed it because I am interested in relationship films much more than I am into action flicks, heavy drama, disaster films and science fiction.Having just reviewed "Boys Don't Cry" I approached Transamerica with some trepidation as Boys Don't Cry involves a runaway transgendered teen with R-rated violence, including sexuality, language, drug usage, an intensely brutal rape scene and murder (kind of the "complete family package" for Hollywood filmmakers).With a laser beam on sensationalism and the cash register, Hollywood filmmakers would like us to believe that it is impossible to tell a good story with significant meaning without using intensely brutal rape scenes, sexuality, language, drug usage and murder (and sometimes making it seem like cool behavior by some very screwed up people).Unlike Boys Don't Cry, Transamerica does involve an extended family in the throes of survival and change. Transamerica chronicles a typical American family.Transamerica is about a pre-operative male-to-female transsexual named Bree who takes an unexpected journey from Los Angeles to New York when she learns that she fathered a son earlier in life. He is now a teenage runaway who is in jail after hustling on the streets of the Big Apple. Did I say that this is a typical American family? Well, not quite.Bree wants sex change surgery but her psychiatrist will not approve the action until Bree comes to terms with the unknown son Toby. Bree gets custody of Toby but does not disclose her relationship to him. Toby wants to ditch her and hitchhike to Los Angeles; Bree, of course, will drive him there, hence the title Transamerica.In the course of their cross-country trip, Bree's identity becomes known and both Bree and Toby end up at Bree's parents' home in Los Angeles. Bree's mother is delighted to learn she has a grandson and still angry about Bree's becoming a transsexual.All of this too-close-to-family comfort is pretty nasty and, of course, this film could not be made without the usual R-rated sexual content, nudity, language and drug use. At least there is no intensely brutal rape scene and murder.Felicity Huffman is cast in the role of Bree and Kevin Zegers is Toby; the rest are bit players in a difficult presentation. Toby apparently ends up living with his grandparents in their upscale environment, and Bree gets on with her sex change.Felicity Huffman is an accomplished, award-winning actress who carries this film along despite a somewhat dubious script by Duncan Tucker who also doubles as Transamerica's director. Tucker won two lesser screenplay awards for his writing; apparently this was his first screenplay that made it to the big screen.I feel Tucker does not use his forum to give a meaningful message about the subject. I ask myself, "Am I a better person for having seen this film?" The short answer is no.
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