Review of Gun Hill Road (2011) by Graham B — 10 Sep 2014

Enrique returns home from a stint in prison to find his homelife has changed. His wife is hiding an affair she had whilst he was away and his son Michael is going through a sexual/gender awakening. The bigoted father tries hard to grasp hold of his masculine ideals, whilst Angela tries her best to keep her family dynamic together.

Though the story of a man returning home from prison to find shit has changed is rather well trodden ground, the tale of Michael's transexuality and the gender politics it brings on is a nice angle.

Harmony Santana is a triumph as Michael and gives the character real empathy. The cast as a whole does very well, but I found Enrique's arc to be rather flat and his story should have held equal heading with that of his son. The juxtaposition of the two characters could have been so much more interesting. It just fell a little flat here.

An intriguing tale of sexual transformation, but not much more.