Transamerica


Synopsis
Bree, a pre-op transsexual is almost ready for her surgery when she gets a call from a NY jail from a boy claiming to be her son. She goes to bail him out and a road trip movie is created as they drive across country towards LA. (Rated R, 2005)


Observations
Though I liked this movie, I think that the reason it got any critical acclaim is two-fold – Felicity Huffman is a good actress and last year was a bad year for movies. The filmmakers do a decent job of creating and understanding between Bree, the transsexual and the viewer without the film turning voyeuristic or sensational. And her son, Toby (played by Kevin Zegers) is a little hottie in a skanky way.

I think there is one scene in the film that calls Bree’s motivations for reassignment surgery into question. She is sitting with her son after a bad visit with her estranged parents and says of her family – “I wish for once they’d look at me and see me.” I felt that statement went against the grain of why she wanted the surgery in the first place – to be able to fit into the world as a woman. Is Bree doing all of this because she wants someone to look at her; someone to validate her? Who knows? It's probably a lot easier for her parents to see her when she's a 6 foot tall man dressed in 1950’s era housewife dresses.

Rating:
Amazon's entry for Transamerica