Review of Transamerica (2005) by Dawdlingpoet — 24 Nov 2021

For a start, this movie isn't as graphic as you might fear it to be, much in the same way as Brokeback Mountain isn't, yet it does provide some awkward scenes and generally it'll be awkward viewing for some, most even because its tackling a somewhat taboo subject.

Watching the behaviour between 'Bree' and Toby it is, of course, very tense - although Toby isn't fully aware of who 'Bree' is until quite late on in the story. This is of course where the whole denial aspect comes from, as its enough of a shock for Toby when he accidentally discovers that 'Bree' isn't entirely a 'she', put it that way, although there's more to the denial theme than that - especially when later on in the story, Toby is confronted with 'Bree's parents, not realising that their actually his grandparents. Watching how they react to their son, almost daughter, returning home (as the 'prodigal son', as his sister Sidney calls him), it is quite painful at times, they clearly don't understand things from 'Bree's point of view, although I also understand why their sad, especially given a couple of things that he says to his mother, so there's definitely a strong element of family turbulence there. Toby is an interesting character, he is very private and while he isn't quiet to point out Bree's 'shortcoming' once he realises he's been lied to, he also has his own secret he keeps which becomes apparent later on. While he may be angry, he also clearly has an element of blind faith in ultimately agreeing to accompany Bree and befriending those that they come across as they travel across the US. It was quite interesting to see how Toby reacted when he was presented with a room full of other transgender people, at that point not realising that 'Bree' was one of them. When 'Bree' dismisses these people, he defends them, which is nice in as much as I'd hope that the younger generations may be more tolerant of such people but then its sad as well as once the story unfolds, it turns out that ultimately he doesn't like 'Bree' because of the fact that s/he had lied about who s/he is, that hurt more than his true identity. Whether he walks away from 'Bree' or not I won't say, I wouldn't like to give away the full story, it is quite complicated but I thought that it was interesting to see how it unfolded and the messages that the movie brought across through the story. I think most people would probably agree that we have our secrets that we keep from members of our family for fear that it would perhaps offend, hurt or digust them, when it needn't be that way. I also found it quite interesting how Bree interacted with some of the other characters, there are some interesting people that they come across, now whether they guess about Brees transgender status or not im not sure but it is interesting, I wonder if there's an element of highlighting that certain states, places or people are perhaps less bothered about such things, im not sure.

I think its perhaps one of those movies you watch and then afterwards you may find yourself reassessing any family feuds you may have had and suchlike, well in as much as I found it to be a thought provoking movie. Felicity Huffman and Kevin Zegers definitely do give good performances as their characters, both hiding their own secrets and having awkward body language but clearly secretly depending on each other for their own reasons. I wouldn't say, however, that this movie is without its flaws as far as the story is concerned, as I did find myself questioning it at times, mainly because I thought it was a bit convenient that Toby seemingly didn't realise 'Bree's status or that s/he was related to him, yet he agreed to trust 'her' and trusted in some of the people that they meet on the way with seemingly blind faith. I did feel that something was off with that, if it had been me I would have asked her alot more questions - especially after the first time that they veered off the designated route to LA and he was confronted with his step father, which was a tense situation to say the least, so there was a believability issue I felt which let the movie down a bit, at least thats what came to my mind as I was watching it.