In Brief: A courageous variation on an archetype; Poignant and sincere.

Written and Directed by Duncan Tucker

---Cast:
Felicity Huffman as Bree
Kevin Zegers as Toby
Fionnula Flanagan Elizabeth
Graham Greene as Calvin
Elizabeth Peña as Margaret
Burt Young as Bree's father

Well, now here's a premise that you can't exactly say you've seen loads of times before!

In this independent drama-with-comedic moments, Felicity Huffman from Desperate Housewives plays Bree (née Stanley), a waitress, a born-again Christian, and a male-to-female transsexual days away from her final operation that will complete her gender reassignment. She suddenly finds out that she has a biological son, Toby, in a New York City jail that she never knew she had, and after going there to bail him out under the guise that she's a missionary, he convinces her to take him with her to L.A. Toby, it turns out, is a junkie and a gay prostitute, and he hopes to find a future in acting in L.A. Bree, on the other hand, is stuffy, puritanistic, and closed. She would just as soon have nothing to do with Toby, seeing no connection between the two of them, and even tries to drop him off at his stepfather's. When that turns disastrous, she decides to take him with her, spending the journey correcting his incorrect grammar, forbidding smoking in her car, and doing anything she can to not only hide the truth of their biological relationship, but of her “transitional” status, while listening to things his mother told him about his biological father, who he says is half Native American (Bree is actually half Jewish).

Huffman portrays Bree not as a stereotype or caricature, but as a profoundly unhappy woman uncomfortable in her own skin, in her own (estranged) family, and in her own life. She can't wait to become fully a woman, and comes across as almost tragic, as her journey with Toby places in her situations where she is unable to fully hide her secrets.
One exchange in the beginning of the film when she is being interviewed for her psychological status prior to her surgery (done from memory):

Interviewer: “How do you feel about your pen1s?”
Bree: “I hate it. I think it's digusting. I don't really like to look at it.”
Interviewer: “What about your friends?”
Bree: “They don't like it either.”

Toby, for his part, couldn't care less if she were a transsexual. After all he's seen and done, he accepts Bree for who and what she is, irritated not at her transsexual status, but at her deception and hypocrisy. A born-again Christian, she disparages a group of transsexuals that she and Toby encounter in order to cover up her own secret, but Toby thinks they're ok people.

When Bree sees her parents for the for the first time after a long estrangement, her devout mother refuses to accept her new life, but agrees to keep the fact that she's Toby's father from the young man.

I found the movie to be courageous in the way it takes an honest look at a small segment of the population who don't often get screen time in our society, and how it portrays with irony the way Bree, a born-again Christian, feels more compelled to hide secrets about herself than Toby, who is a drug user, prostitute and hustler. Distant from each other at first, Bree by the time she attains what she ostensibly wanted for so long, has realized how much she is connected to her son, and how her reassignment surgery may not give her as much happiness as she once thought it would.

As another reviewer noted:

Felicity Huffman, won Best Actress at the Tribeca Film Festival for her role in this film, portrays Bree with every nuance of a pre-operative male-to-female transsexual without transgression, from the octave of her voice to the almost forced hyper-femininity. Kevin Zegers holds his own as Toby, playing the character's tough façade alongside vulnerability and adolescent confusion. Laced with humor and poignant moments, Transamerica transcends the genres it incorporates due to writer/director Duncan Tucker's engaging script and meticulous direction. The film ultimately comes together as the story of two people in transition who are used to relying on themselves and have not yet realized that it sometimes takes a stranger to help you move on to the next place.

The movie is currently scheduled for September release, no doubt to take advantage of Oscar season, and if marketed right, I think we could be seeing a nomination for Huffman.

(It should be noted that this film is not for children, as it contains mature subject matter, and two shots of full-frontal male (well, one male and one transsexual) nudity, one of which is obscured by distance and the quickness of the shot, the other of which is slightly obscured by nighttime shadows.)

You can see the trailer here.

This film makes its U.S. TV debut tonight at 9 on Lifetime, of all places. I've kept my eye out for it to appear (uncut) on the pay movie channels, but no luck. More here.

I've kept my eye out for it to appear (uncut)....
Luigi Novi: LOL...snicker...sorry, Adam, I couldn't resist. Can we assume you didn't intend to make a double entendre?

Can we assume you didn't intend to make a double entendre?
Oh, for cryin' out loud!! I just realized what I wrote. Guess senility is encroaching faster than I thought. Yes, I did not intend to make a double-entendre.
Lifetime is repeating the movie today at 2 p.m., btw.