Transamerica

A pre-operative male-to-female transsexual takes an unexpected journey when she learns that she fathered a son, now a teenage runaway hustling on the streets of New York.

Directed by
Duncan Tucker

Genres
Adventure, Comedy, Drama

Cast
Felicity Huffman, Kevin Zegers, Fionnula Flanagan, Elizabeth Pe?a, Graham Greene, Burt Young, Carrie Preston, Venida Evans, Jon Budinoff, Raynor Scheine, Grant Monohon, Bianca Leigh, Danny Burstein, Maurice Orozco, Paul Borghese

We saw this film with friends Friday night at the Hyde Park Theater. The film was obviously a labor of love. Duncan Tucker wrote and directed and wisely cast Felicity Huffman as Bree (before she had been cast as a “desperate housewife”), Huffman’s husband William Macy is executive producer.

The plot line is certainly the tried and true formula of the transformational road trip, yet the irony of Bree’s concurrent sexual transformation freshens a story that could easily have been clich?. Kevin Zegers and the rest of the supporting cast are superb, but Huffman’s characterization of Bree is Oscar caliber.

See Transamerica! It’s not tragic like “Boys Don’t Cry”. It’s not about sexuality, fetish, or camp. It’s a movie about otherness, transformation, family, and ultimately acceptance. Felicity Huffman’s Golden Globe winning performance is absolutely astounding. Her acting skill fills Bree with insecurity, pathos, warmth, humor, and growth which ultimately transforms the audiences involvement from freak show curiosity to empathy and identification.

Thankfully the Weinstein brothers recognized just how outstandingly strong this performance is and decided that Transamerica would be one of the first films they would choose to distribute after their great success at Miramax.

I look forward to eventually owning this great independent film on DVD.

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