Transamerica (2005) Reviews

• People who might really exist

  slabihoud2005-10-18

  TRANSAMERICA is a film where you meet people who might really exist. And real people are not only great or terrible, they are mostly both. It is the acting and the dialog which makes all the difference. The film offers a blueprinted storyline of two people who don't know each other traveling together across the US, from NY to LA. Memories of MIDNIGHT RUN and RAIN MAN do come up once in a while. But still this is everything but a Hollywood product. The main character is a Transsexual named Bree, born as a man but living the past few years as a woman, only days before her operation which will definitely make her a woman. That subject and, the fact, that the role is played by an actress signifies a very different approach to the old gender questions. The film offers funny moments too, but never makes fun about a man, wanting to be a woman. The film is very subtle, and it is really a pity when it is finally over. It displays very well that great stories don't require great budgets to make great films! 9 out of 10!

• Adam At the Cusp of Eve

  nycritic2006-02-07

  There will be people who on viewing this film by Duncan Tucker will find themselves repulsed by its nature, maybe fascinated a little, or trying to nit-pick the situations that develop at the second half. But for once, finally, like its sister film BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN, there is a film which doesn't use the transgendered person as the butt of a joke. At last a movie that humanizes the experience and makes it accessible to anyone who watches it regardless of gender preference. I'd been anxious to watch TRANSAMERICA on the heels of having watched NORMAL on HBO which also dealt on the same subject: a man who comes out to himself as being trapped in the wrong sex. Both films skirt away from too much melodrama and treat the issue with the dignity that it deserves, with the difference that TRANSAMERICA veers off into flat-out comedy with Bree's arrival to her family's home but even that looks welcome in a story that could have become tedious despite its risky subject matter. The story of Bree, formerly known as Stanley, who is "this close" to getting her lifelong dream of being a woman, except for a little problem: she has a son, now 17 years old, who's in jail, and she must come to terms with him before taking this final step. She's none too happy: this means opening the door back to her old life as a man and she's not about to do this. The kid is a total hindrance. So she decides to keep it a secret, bail him out, drive him to Los Angeles, and be done with him. And that in short is the entire set-up of TRANSAMERICA. It's a road movie about two people involved in an uneasy relationship, but unlike many road movies, these are two real, conscious, breathing people who tell more about their lives than any flashback sequence. Toby, for instance, isn't just another teen with troubles but someone who dreams to meet his father, who doesn't want to go to his home town because of a hideous secret that lives there. His incursion into porn remains unexplained, but many pornstars have a history of some form of abuse and a need to be loved but an ingrained fear of rejection which is the main issue with Toby. He wants a father but wonders will he be rejected. Kevin Zegers plays Toby like a quieter, but still intense Leo DiCaprio. Felicity Huffman, needless to say, has the meatier role. She seems to be adept in playing real people who have real stories to tell as in her turn as Lynette Scavo on "Desperate Housewives". Since not much is said about Bree (except that she, like Bree from the show as played by Marcia Cross is also a perfectionist if a dowdier one, a woman who obsesses over voice inflections and personal appearance and social decorum), everything is left to Huffman's body language and facial expressions. I kept wondering what it was that made her, as Stanley, veer off into what seems to be an underachieving life when she had it all. Since many transsexuals have gone this path -- leaving a life of "normalcy" and working odd jobs, trying to blend in or to live as a "stealth" -- it didn't surprise me when I saw that Bree was a waitress in a Mexican restaurant. Transsexuals for the majority live lonely lives, and unless they are in gender-tolerant cities, they won't be found in the corporate arena. Many of them go through incredible hardships and meet violent ends. Some thrive as performers, on the fringes of society, seen as "freaks" to be snickered at. That is what we as a society impose on them: a friendly alienation. Huffman manages to bring all that forth in the way she behaves among people -- even how she is in her own home, all practiced gestures and shy manners. She is her role, down to her private parts. And bold, for showing them -- where most actresses over the age of forty would balk at a nude scene Huffman dives in, and even though it's short, because we've seen her with a fake penis on two occasions, it's fitting to see her as the woman she is portraying. Very, very daring without being exploitative. TRANSAMERICA is more tolerant and compassionate than it seems at first. Like I stated, the film does not leer at her like a freak of nature but a real person, though she herself, her need for perfection, is the one to bring out the laughter. It may not eventually be awarded the Oscar for Best Actress but as of now it's going down in history as being a sensitive portrayal of a woman trying to make it in the world with her son.

• Two for the road

  jotix1002006-02-26

  Bree Osbourne has been a woman trapped in a man's body all her life. She has come to the decision that will change her forever and perhaps live a happier life, than the one she has led up to that moment when we meet her. Unfortunately for her, fate intervenes in a way she didn't even planned upon. Duncan Tucker, the director and writer of "Transamerica", takes a difficult subject and expanded on it. This is not exactly what any Hollywood films dare to present to a general audience since it deals with a frank approach to a subject that is not commonly seen treated so honestly and with so much integrity. Mr. Tucker shows a respectful restraint in the way he shows his story that is never shocking, or in one's face. "Transamerica" is basically a road movie. It takes us to New York, first, where Bree has come to bail out the son, Toby, she never knew about, but who appears to be a real person, and he stands in the way, since Toby, the young man, is suddenly her responsibility and she must face the consequences. "Transamerica" is a cross country trip where two people get to spend some time together as they travel this vast country from New York to Los Angeles. Toby, a male hustler working the streets of Manhattan, questions Bree's motives because he doesn't want any part of what she proposes to him. First, a stop to see his step-father is something he would rather not do. He doesn't have any happy memories of a man that has abused him sexually while he lived at home. Toby, for all his street smarts, evidently doesn't even guess what Bree is really like until an incident where he discovers the truth. "Transamerica" is a film about discoveries. Bree is at first horrified when she is told about Toby. Little by little, her instincts start smoothing things over, until she accepts the teen ager as a part of herself. The relationship between them flourish along the highways where they are seen traveling and make them come closer together, as they should. The best thing to see the film is because of the wonderful job Felicity Huffman does in her portrayal of Bree. The actress disappears in the role in ways one couldn't imagine. The mannerisms of the trans gender woman are captured almost effortless by Ms. Huffman, who carries the film on her shoulders and runs away with it. Her performance is nothing but perfection. Kevin Zegers plays Toby, the son Bree knew nothing about. It's a credit to this young actor to blend perfectly with the more experienced Ms. Huffman and making this young man true to life. The supporting playing by Fionnula Flanagan, Burt Young, Elizabeth Pena, and Graham Greene, among others, compliment the film well. The credit for presenting this film belongs to the courage of Duncan Tucker, who wrote a beautiful screen play and then directed with love and understanding for a thorny subject.

• On the Road Again

  moutonbear252006-01-21

  TRANSAMERICA Written & Directed by Duncan Tucker A perky spokesperson is on the television. "This is the voice I want to use," she repeats, staring directly into the camera. Bree Osbourne (Felicity Huffman) watches this instructional tape, using it as yet one more step to ultimately eliminate every trace of Stanley Schupack, the man she once was and biologically still is, or at least she still will be for the next week. Bree is a pre-operation, male-to-female transsexual with a definite distaste for all things supposedly male. This means anything vulgar or classless and even her penis. She would much rather embrace all that is delicate, artistic, and insightful. These conscious decisions show gender as a performance, a calculated choice to put forth the parts of you that you identify as more innately masculine or feminine in accordance with who you want to be. In Bree's case, the decisions she makes are often awkward and misplaced, from the jerkiness of her walk to her often difficult-to-process-how -she-rationalized-that-was-a-good-look- for-her ensembles. Despite that, the decisions she makes are her own and having made them and consequently sticking with them is more important than the decisions themselves. After all, she is about to make a much bigger decision that she will have to live with for the rest of her life Just as Bree can almost feel the jarring cold of the surgical knife on her skin, she learns that her one sexual fumble with a woman back in college, when she was still Stanley, led to the birth of a child. (oh, those silly college experimentations.) That child, Toby (Kevin Zegers), has gotten himself arrested and sent to a juvenile detention unit up in New York City. In response, Bree's therapist will not sign off on her authorization to go ahead with the surgery if Bree refuses to confront this boy and her past. Upon meeting Toby, Bree learns that he hustles to earn a living and enjoys his hallucinogenics while he is still holding on to his dream of making it in the movies. He aims high but he's still a realist, acknowledging that his big future in the film industry will likely be in gay porn. From the looks of him in his undies, I dare say he's a pretty perceptive kid, not to mention a good shot at success. In the driver's seat we have a timid and awkward father who will soon be a mother but has not divulged this much to her son. In the passenger seat, we have an ambitious and bright young man who has lost his way without realizing. And thus begins the great transamerican road trip from New York City to Los Angeles. Bree's seemingly unsolicited act of kindness inspires Toby to be a better man and return that kindness to this stranger. This cycle continues along the way as we watch two people who are so acutely aware of the roles they portray to the world, shed their thick skins and take on new roles without even realizing they're doing it. One is trying to be heard right now and the other has tried for so long not to be seen. Yet on this cross country trek, they both leave these acts they're so used to aside and embrace their new selves as a mother who helps her child see his worth and a child who makes his mother feel more like a woman than any instructional videotape or hormone she's ever seen or taken. Felicity Huffman knows how to play a reluctant mother. As the exhausted mother of four, Lynette Scavo on television's DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES, Huffman exhibits her strengths as an actress by playing Lynette as a woman who relies on her instincts. She is protective and fierce while still sensitive and nurturing. While her television character's hesitation comes from a lack of confidence in her abilities to embody one of life's most natural roles, her TRANSAMERICA film persona holds back for mostly selfish reasons. She has not felt like herself her entire life (The look of disgust on her face when a doctor asks how she feels about her penis hits hard for how quick and harsh a reaction it is). Having a problem son to deal with and eventually confront regarding his misconceived notions about his birth father is a direct obstacle that she had not counted on. This is her initial fear but Bree is actually terrified that she has no nurturing capabilities just like her television counterpart. It is only by spending time with her son that she comes to learn that she has much wisdom to impart upon him, that she was not ruined entirely by her parents or that she could stand to learn a thing or two from him as well. The issue of control, having it in one's life or over one's self is a struggle for most but can be even more of an arduous challenge for marginalized people, like a transsexual person. He or she not only needs to ingest numerous hormones in order be more like the person they feel they are inside which is in complete contradiction to the body they've been given but they then have to deal with the ignorance and judgment that is given to them each time they put on their armor and walk outside their door. TRANSAMERICA is a film about learning how to incorporate the person you've always known yourself to be, the person you so desperately want to become and about healing the relationships with the people you meet and touch along the winding road that gets you there.

• Felicity Huffman's wry performance is Oscar quality

  bliss_s2005-08-10

  I first saw Transamerica as the closing film for the Frameline film festival in San Francisco where it won the "The Frameline Audience Award for Best Feature". The film was obviously a labor of love. Duncan Tucker wrote, directed and wisely cast Felicity Huffman as Bree (before she had been cast as a "desperate housewife"). Huffman's husband William Macy was executive producer. The plot line is certainly the tried and true formula of the transformational road trip, yet the irony of Bree's concurrent sexual transformation freshens a story that could easily have been cliché. Kevin Zegers and the rest of the supporting cast are superb, but Huffman's characterization of Bree is Oscar caliber. See Transamerica! It's not tragic like "Boys Don't Cry". It's not about sexuality, fetish, or camp. It's a movie about otherness, transformation, family, and ultimately acceptance. Felicity Huffman's Golden Globe winning and Oscar nominated performance is absolutely astounding. Her acting skill fills Bree with insecurity, pathos, warmth, humor, and growth which ultimately transforms the audience's involvement from freak show curiosity to empathy and identification. Thankfully the Weinstein brothers recognized just how outstandingly strong this performance is and decided that Transamerica would be one of the first films they would choose to distribute after their great success at Miramax. I saw this movie again during it's limited distribution, again in general distribution and now own the DVD. Each time I've watched it I find even more to like. Transamerica is an indie classic.