Well here I go again, being contrarian to the majority opinion. Honestly, I don't do this just to be perverse!I didn't think much of Transamerica. It sets up a big, juicy, unconventional story concept and then plays it out in as banal and conventional a manner as possible. The movie is written and directed with such incredible earnestness that you just want to tell writer/director Duncan Tucker to calm down and take a few deep breaths.The story introduces us to a transexual one week away from the final surgery to go from physical manhood to womanhood. Felicity Huffman plays Bree (who used to be Stanley) as an uncomfortable and somewhat unsure person who only has her earnest desire to be a fully-formed woman as the touchstone in her life. She'll do or say almost anything to reach her goal. Suddenly she finds out she has a 17-year-old son she never knew about.Her therapist/counselor decides, for reasons of plot convenience, that Bree must go and confront/resolve this part of her past on her own before the counselor will approve the final surgery. This despite the fact that there is a one-year waiting list for the operation; it has taken Bree ages to get everything lined up with the money, the arrangements, and the other sign-offs needed, and the therapist was about to happily sign the consent form.
Apparently she deems it therapeutic to force Bree into a time-constrained emotional confrontation with someone completely disconnected from her decision processes and life choices and place her in a pressure-filled situation when her emotional and hormonal fragility is at its worst. Sounds like a recipe for success and happiness to me. I can see why the counselor didn't want to have anything to do with it herself.But I digress.Bree goes off to see the boy, Toby (played by Kevin Zegers), in an attempt to get him safely tucked away out of her life so she can continue on with her plans. Everything that follows could pretty much have been played out in a commonplace movie of the week plot ignoring the transgender issues entirely: "Wounded mother in self-denial and wounded estranged son in self-denial find each other and, through conflicts and shared experiences, discover the importance of accepting each other...and themselves!" You can just hear the deep voiceover on the movie trailer, can't you?Things play along at a slow, steady, and inevitable pace as Bree hides the fact that she still has male plumbing and that she is Toby's father (whom Toby has idealized and idolized in his imagination). Then suddenly the two find themselves at Bree's childhood home, confronting her TV-sitcom family in situations that try for pathos but end up as farce, as the acting, writing, and direction crank up the volume to 11.
.jpg?t=20120527181101)
Article comments
1 - Chris Evans
Wow..I honestly don't know WHAT movie you were watching buddy. I'm almost at a loss for words. Everything you hated about this movie I loved. Flanagan gave me more laughs than I've had in years.