DVDs From the Library-TransAmerica

In the library there is a bin full of DVDs. One may take up to five and keep them for a week. Don’t forget to return them on time or you will pay a hefty over-due penalty, or worse, they will develop a terminal mold and eat your furniture, flooring and, eventually, your brain. Join me now as I take a look at one…

TransAmerica

Felicity Huffman is a wonderful actress. I am not particularly attracted to her but in this film I loved her dearly. I know, I know, it is not her I loved but the character she played but still there is some part of me that loved her. Perhaps it is the guts it took to play this part. A she who plays a he who needs to be a she. Confusing, right!

I don’t pretend to understand any of the urges that lead to such radical requirements. I don’t even get it that there are people who have these urges and feel compelled to change their sexual orientation. I am so straight that I can't even walk around the block, so this goes way beyond anything I understand on a personal level. Still, in this film he/she has me convinced that he/she does have this need to change, that it is not something he/she can do anything about except to follow his/her needs to the logical, surgical conclusion, and I like him/her for it. That is the basic premise of his/her sexual story but only the start of the point of the film. On top of all the sexual confusion he/she has a son (Kevin Zegers) who he/she never knew about, a family that has less understanding of the workings of his/her brain than I have, all this set against the backdrop of a world that sees him/her as a freak and (especially medically) tries to deny him/her the right to express his/her preferences.

The film itself is unpretentious-and that is an accomplishment I ascribe to the actors and a pretty good script. It was gritty and tense most of the time but warm where it should have been warm. I especially liked his/her family-no wait, I didn’t like them much at all, actually. I just really understood them. They were everyone’s family! Mixed religion. Devoid of empathy and blind to the pain of those who should be most dear to them. They are materialistic and uncouth. And here comes the gentle, sensitive, transgender son with a heretofore unknown son/grandchild…Crash… Perfect!!!

I enjoyed this film and was glad it didn’t end in some catastrophic mess. The ending seemed real. The characters seemed spot on. The music and the camera work seemed right. Wow! And to think I got this out of the bin at the library.

I give this film my "DVD From the Library" rating of two cans of cheap beer.