Transamerica

Transamerica

Directed by Duncan Tucker

103 minutes

Transamerica (Duncan Tucker, 2005) is an independent drama that is warm hearted and dark. It tells the story of a once Stanley, and now Bree (Felicity Huffman). A change both physical and psychological. After Bree is informed of her long lost son Toby, (Kevin Zegers, who looks a lot like Edward Furlong) who’s been jailed for drugs and hustling, Transamerica becomes a story on parenthood. Bree pays the bail fee, unrevealing her identity, and convinces Toby to ride with her to the West Coast. This is in order for Bree to drop Toby at his stepfather's. However, when violence and hidden secrets are revealed, this plan is thwarted. Toby and Bree must seek each other's true identities to resolve family tensions. 

Transamerica is a wholesome, natural film the sort you would struggle to dislike. This is well packed and (somewhat) explicitly shown. Qualifying itself above the rest and definitely a challenge to normative subject matters. Helping to unpack this, is its fun attitude. Like you're watching a John Walters film with hideous pink frills and matriarchal characters it has serious matters like sexually abuse. What I like here, is it's banal and natural it feels like a supportive space to reach out too.  Perhaps in hindsight though, this taboo does pops out of nowhere and I can't help but to think it's being deliberately controversial, that's probably just me. But where Transamerica really excels is showing transsexuality (or  gender dysphoria as it is termed here). Not many narratives show this, and when a character is transexual, it has comedy or tragedy attached to it. The film does have these elements though, but the difference is we are not laughing at Bree, we are laughing with her. Bree is an everyday protagonist like you would see in a hetro-normative role, that's the difference.

As it happens Transamerica has some minor disappointment. My reasoning’s may be more cynicism.  Likewise it has nothing to do with the above mentioned themes or attitude the film displays. It’s about the way the film reached, or not reached potential audiences. Transamerica did won awards in various film festivals and Felicity Huffman won best actress at the Golden Globes, however it seems the film feeds only to an exclusive audience. This is still good, but perhaps these audiences may already be comfortable with these themes, It’s hard to say and I shouldn't generalise. I suppose my biggest gripe, is that the film warns you to bring an open mind. To me, having this display only gives people the opportunity to bypass the film. This is a shame.

The other factor I find strange, is why not use a person who has been through this change? In fairness to Felicity Huffman, her performance is great and convincing to say the least. It’s just that, it would have been more interesting and given the sort of realism it needed. If it managed this, maybe it would have taken these themes and unconventional characters to the next level. In that case then, you would need to bring an open mind.