Transamerica

'Transamerica' is mainly a road movie about a pre-operative transsexual Bree (Huffman), her unknowing son (Zegers) and their complex yet developing relationship. There are some brilliant shots of the vast American landscapes throughout the film. This is not a predominant social rights movie. It focuses more on the relationship between the two protagonists. It's about about individual acceptance rather than social approval. It's not a tragic piece either. In spite of involving a risky subject, Tucker cleverly gives a comic touch to his writing by balancing it with the drama without making any of it even slightly melodramatic.

Bree is just a couple of days away from fulfilling her dream of becoming a women when suddenly she receives an unexpected phone call saying that her son's in jail. Bree is reluctant and not too happy about facing her past but after taking her therapist Margaret she goes to New York and bails her son out of jail and decides to drive with him to L.A. During this trip they tell each other about their lives (the use of flashbacks has been cleverly avoided).

Felicity Huffman delivers a brave and fantastic performance of what she herself described as the role of a lifetime. She displays Bree with insecurity, pathos, fear, humour and growth which really makes one forget that they're actually looking at an actress act. Her use of non-verbal language is remarkable. While in the beginning the audience may feel that they're looking at an ugly freak, one can't help but love the character after the end credits have rolled. Kevin Zegers intensely underplays his part as Bree's son Toby and does a fine job. Elizabeth Pena, Graham Greene and Fionulla Flanagan stand out in smaller roles.

'Transamerica' is a wonderful sincere film about very real people. It's about a woman and her son surviving in a difficult world. Though many have described Huffman's performance to be of Oscar calibre, the Oscars have rewarded many non-deserving performances. It is definitely one of the most challenging performances and one that will be remembered in the history of cinema. A fine piece of cinema.

This was my favorite film of the Tribeca festival. Felicity Huffman's performance is incredible and grabs you from the first scene. It was a smart, poignant and funny film. Some of the characters are too thinly drawn, some of the humor too inappropriately broad but those were minor issues for me. Though rooted in some ways in standard plot devices, the transgender protagonist makes all the difference in the world. Which, in a way, is kind of the point -- how we view people's differences (with acceptance or disdain) says a lot about who we are. Of course, it played well here in New York City. But what about the rest of Bush's America? By the way, I was told that Lions Gate picked up the film for distribution.

"Transamerica" follows the trajectory of the long tradition of road movies with opposites paired up on a voyage of self-discovery, with stops along the way to their pasts.

The gimmick here recalls "Broken Flowers"s trip when another biological father discovers a son. Here, it's not just that the person who produced the sperm is on the verge of transsexual completion that helps the film rise above various genre clichés (there was more than passing similarity to scenes from such films as "The Sure Thing," "Smoke Signals," and "Midnight Run" in debut writer/director Duncan Tucker's script, plus unfortunate throwback images of the south from "Deliverance" and way over-the-top dysfunctional families, and some Native American commentary on transsexuals coinciding with a convenient appearance by the ever estimable Graham Greene.)

As graphically embodied in two terrific performances, "Bree" (Felicity Huffman as née "Stanley") and the new-found son "Toby" have opposite relations to their bodies. Having felt like a stealth woman trapped in a man's body, "Bree" is naive to the pleasures of the flesh and is used to having to be wrapped up tight in her struggle to control normality that has impeded every part of her life.

"Toby" is an abused gay hustler who probably for good reason and profit assumes that people of either gender or those in-between are responding to him physically (and Kevin Zegers is such an unfettered, tousled Adonis that he is even more sensual than Joseph Gordon-Levitt's somewhat similar screwed-up kid in "Mysterious Skin").

Both have had only negative experiences with family, as we see along the way, and both have a lot to learn about the parent/child relationship and honesty.

While it makes it too easy for the audience's perception to have the transsexual be played by an actress (like Vanessa Redgrave as Renee Richards or Olympia Dukakis in "Tales of the City" or Famke Janssen on "Nip/Tuck" vs. Terence Stamp in "The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert") with only two momentary reversion lapses to masculine mannerisms played for laughs and revelation, at least for more realism "Bree" is not in the arts or some high-powered white-collar job.

There were a lot of chuckles throughout the film, but I was surprised that not all of the folks at the crowded opening weekend matinée of a very mixed gay and straight audience joined in. (Though the two guys next to me who had been discussing "Lord of the Rings" just before the film started were uproarious at "Toby"s analysis of the gay sub-text in that story.) It was a cheap shot for easy laughs to have "Bree" be half-Jewish.

While I thought it was for symbolism that the two have a key stop-over in Phoenix, it turns out that was filmed at the director's parents' house in Arizona. I presume the kid's concluding black cowboy hat and blond hair is a bit of an homage to "Midnight Cowboy."

The soundtrack selections are excellent reflections of the environments the characters are in, from Latin in California, to hip hop in New York to a lovely range of Southern country and gospel, moving through Texas with a Lucinda Williams track, Native American in New Mexico, with a beautiful new Dolly Parton song over the credits that should get an Oscar nomination.

TRANSAMERICA Written & Directed by Duncan Tucker

A perky spokesperson is on the television. "This is the voice I want to use," she repeats, staring directly into the camera. Bree Osbourne (Felicity Huffman) watches this instructional tape, using it as yet one more step to ultimately eliminate every trace of Stanley Schupack, the man she once was and biologically still is, or at least she still will be for the next week. Bree is a pre-operation, male-to-female transsexual with a definite distaste for all things supposedly male. This means anything vulgar or classless and even her penis. She would much rather embrace all that is delicate, artistic, and insightful. These conscious decisions show gender as a performance, a calculated choice to put forth the parts of you that you identify as more innately masculine or feminine in accordance with who you want to be. In Bree's case, the decisions she makes are often awkward and misplaced, from the jerkiness of her walk to her often difficult-to-process-how -she-rationalized-that-was-a-good-look- for-her ensembles. Despite that, the decisions she makes are her own and having made them and consequently sticking with them is more important than the decisions themselves. After all, she is about to make a much bigger decision that she will have to live with for the rest of her life

Just as Bree can almost feel the jarring cold of the surgical knife on her skin, she learns that her one sexual fumble with a woman back in college, when she was still Stanley, led to the birth of a child. (oh, those silly college experimentations.) That child, Toby (Kevin Zegers), has gotten himself arrested and sent to a juvenile detention unit up in New York City. In response, Bree's therapist will not sign off on her authorization to go ahead with the surgery if Bree refuses to confront this boy and her past. Upon meeting Toby, Bree learns that he hustles to earn a living and enjoys his hallucinogenics while he is still holding on to his dream of making it in the movies. He aims high but he's still a realist, acknowledging that his big future in the film industry will likely be in gay porn. From the looks of him in his undies, I dare say he's a pretty perceptive kid, not to mention a good shot at success. In the driver's seat we have a timid and awkward father who will soon be a mother but has not divulged this much to her son. In the passenger seat, we have an ambitious and bright young man who has lost his way without realizing. And thus begins the great transamerican road trip from New York City to Los Angeles. Bree's seemingly unsolicited act of kindness inspires Toby to be a better man and return that kindness to this stranger. This cycle continues along the way as we watch two people who are so acutely aware of the roles they portray to the world, shed their thick skins and take on new roles without even realizing they're doing it. One is trying to be heard right now and the other has tried for so long not to be seen. Yet on this cross country trek, they both leave these acts they're so used to aside and embrace their new selves as a mother who helps her child see his worth and a child who makes his mother feel more like a woman than any instructional videotape or hormone she's ever seen or taken.

Felicity Huffman knows how to play a reluctant mother. As the exhausted mother of four, Lynette Scavo on television's DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES, Huffman exhibits her strengths as an actress by playing Lynette as a woman who relies on her instincts. She is protective and fierce while still sensitive and nurturing. While her television character's hesitation comes from a lack of confidence in her abilities to embody one of life's most natural roles, her TRANSAMERICA film persona holds back for mostly selfish reasons. She has not felt like herself her entire life (The look of disgust on her face when a doctor asks how she feels about her penis hits hard for how quick and harsh a reaction it is). Having a problem son to deal with and eventually confront regarding his misconceived notions about his birth father is a direct obstacle that she had not counted on. This is her initial fear but Bree is actually terrified that she has no nurturing capabilities just like her television counterpart. It is only by spending time with her son that she comes to learn that she has much wisdom to impart upon him, that she was not ruined entirely by her parents or that she could stand to learn a thing or two from him as well.

The issue of control, having it in one's life or over one's self is a struggle for most but can be even more of an arduous challenge for marginalized people, like a transsexual person. He or she not only needs to ingest numerous hormones in order be more like the person they feel they are inside which is in complete contradiction to the body they've been given but they then have to deal with the ignorance and judgment that is given to them each time they put on their armor and walk outside their door. TRANSAMERICA is a film about learning how to incorporate the person you've always known yourself to be, the person you so desperately want to become and about healing the relationships with the people you meet and touch along the winding road that gets you there.

I usually avoid Transsexual movies as they make me uncomfortable ! That's why I avoided the movie "Transamerica" when it came out . But being a movie fan I kept reading reviews that were saying how great the movie was and how great the actors were . So I finally rented the movie in 2011 and viewed it for the first time . I had seen 'The Angry Inch' and it did nothing for me . Then I saw "A Soldiers Girl" and that movie stuck with me but it was violent . Then I viewed Transamerica and was at last entertained . Felicity Huffman , was an Oscar's performance to say the least and she did win that award . She was amazing and I do not think a male playing the role could have carried it off as well . All the actors were 100 percent human and able to reach the audience ! Kevin Segers is a bright spot in the movie as Toby , Bree's son that she did not know she had. Kevin's performance was nothing short of Oscar material , which he should have won something . There are a lot of great up and coming actors from Canada . And if it were not for the Canadians we would not have movies like this , and "The Barbarian Invasion''s . Hollywood just cannot come out of the closet long enough to make a movie in this genre , let alone in off the wall subjects. I gave this welcome flick 8 stars out of 10 . ciao yaaah69