Traveling Across Transamerica - DVD

****

Every so often I get sucker punched by a film. The hype and buzz draw me in only to leave me wanting my money and time back. There are films with great buzz but I know from the story line I’m not going to enjoy the film so I just don’t go there. “Broke Back Mountain?” Not going there. So, when I ran across “Transamerica,” on Netflix, I remembered all the buzz about it and almost decided, “Not going there.” Then I recalled Felicity Huffman (Desperate Housewives) was nominated for an Academy Award as the lead, so I took a chance and rented Transamerica.

In this road movie, Bree (Felicity Huffman) is a self-motivated, male-to-female transsexual. Days away from the operation that will make him a physical woman, he receives a phone call informing him that he has a sixteen year old son from years past. Bree’s psychiatrist (Elizabeth Pena), won’t allow him to receive the operation unless he confronts his past. Bree flies to New York to bail his possible son, Toby, out of jail.
Toby (Kevin Zegers) is a teenage wreck. A male prostitute, druggie with a hard-case attitude, he is introduced to Bree believing she’s a Christian missionary case worker. Bree doesn’t do anything to change this idea, and after a discussion with Toby, Bree decides that they will drive back to Los Angeles together in hopes of reuniting him with his step-father along the way. This doesn’t work out and Bree has to take total responsibility for his son. “Transamerica” works because it doesn't present itself as a message movie. There is a smattering of transgender issues but the heart of the story is not the journey of a man who is becoming a woman, but about a person who is struggling to become a parent. This is the films sweet, funny and dramatic core. But, story aside, Felicity Huffman is startling as Bree. At first I was very aware her real sex and that acted as a kind of comfort zone through the early stages of the film until she was thoroughly established as a man, and then later as a woman trapped in a man's body. It was an incredible job of acting and no man could have pulled this off more convincingly.
Remote in hand I sat down with Transamerica waiting to be sucker-punched. Ready at any moment to go to the next movie. And I was sucker-punched . . . in the best possible way. I was rewarded with an extraordinary journey across Transamerica.