Review of Tomboy (2011) by Phillip D — 23 Apr 2012
A simple, very touching drama about gender confusion. 10 year old Laure wants to be a boy, and when she moves into a new neighbourhood, here is her chance to be a boy: so she tells her friends she is Michael. Soon she is playing with the boys, imitating their behaviour, and a local girl is developing a crush on him.
At the heart of this film are two incredible child performances from Zoà (C) Hà (C)ran and Malonn Là (C)vana as the two sisters keeping this secret - they are natural and brilliant. Director Cà (C)line Sciamma actually draws out great performances from all her child stars - her camera is almost ethnographic in its portrait.
It is not a perfect film by any means - any larger questions of social acceptance of transgender children is irrelevent to the story Sciamma wants to tell (which has the qualities of a fairy-tale) - and the children, apart from one brief moment of confrontation, seem almost to accept Laure for what she is. Perhaps Sciamma was trying to make a point: that children can accept this, so why can't adults? But if she was, it wasn't well made.
Nevertheless, it is a charming, warm film with engaging performances and certainly worth a watch.
This review of Tomboy (2011) was written by Phillip D on 23 Apr 2012.
Tomboy has generally received very positive reviews.
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