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Java
Man Reviews "Transamerica" (rated R)
Written
& Directed by Duncan Tucker.
Starring Felicity Huffman, Kevin Zegers, Fionnula Flanagan, Graham
Greene,
Burt Young & Elizabeth Pena.
Running Time: 103 minutes.
Overview...
Felicity
Huffman stars as an L. A. waitress named Bree who is living in
"deep stealth," because in reality she is still a man
named Stanley. That will all change in a week when she has
the surgery that will complete her trans-gender
transformation. One evening she gets a call from a
17-year-old New York street hustler (Zegers) who is looking for
his father. "There was this one girl in college,"
she tells her friend and therapist Margaret (Pena), "but the
whole thing was so tragically lesbian I didn't think it
counted." Well it did count, and Margaret will not
approve her surgery until Bree resolves the situation. So
she flies to New York, bails the kid out of jail (posing as a
Church-lady do-gooder) and they hit the road to the west coast
where she can have her surgery and he can "upgrade" his
career to porno star. Along the way there are stops in
Kentucky, Dallas, New Mexico and Phoenix to meet characters from
both of their pasts -- and possibly their futures.
Review...
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3 Java Mugs out of 4 |
One
of the most likable characters created by a filmmaker this year is
a man named Stanley who wants to be a woman named Sabrina.
Most of the credit for the character's likeability has been
justifiably given to Huffman for her remarkable, Oscar-nominated
performance. But more than performance goes into creating a
character. It starts with the writing and continues with all
of the other ingredients that go into making a film.
The dialogue is smart and witty, and most of the best lines go to
Bree's character. She is
also very saintly, so that it's easy for the other characters to
buy her as a sort of Christian missionary. She is visually
portrayed in such a way that we can easily identify with
her... Some days the harsh Arizona sun makes her look
dreadful; on other days, with an evening glow of serenity -- and
an attractive camera angle -- she looks positively gorgeous.
In short, like all of us, she has good days and bad days.
How the other characters react to her also contributes to her
characterization... Toby (Zegers) likes her, in his distant,
teenage way; Calvin Two Goats (Greene) is totally smitten by her;
and by the time we arrive at the Phoenix home of her parents
(Flanagan & Young) we are so much on her side that we can't
understand why they are so upset with her.
The other performances add even more richness to the film,
especially those of Native American master actor Greene and Abbey
Theatre-trained Irish actress Flanagan. As for the overall
story, the film goes down the same road as hundreds of road movies
before it. But road movies, like train movies, give the
director an opportunity to contrast wide open spaces with the
claustrophobia of a car or a motel room. The score features
a lively array of country songs including the Oscar-nominated
Dolly Parton tune "Travelin' Thru," though my favorite
is Lucinda Williams' "Like a Rose."
Traveling "Transamerica" with these characters is a
worthwhile journey.
To
Watch a Preview Movie Trailer of Transamerica
Click Here!
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