TRANSAMERICA

Desperate Housewife Felicity Huffman undergoes a personal transformation in the comedy-drama TRANSAMERICA. Huffman is Bree, formerly Stanley, a transsexual who is in the final stages before gender reassignment surgery. Just before her surgery, she finds out that she may have a son named Toby. After consulting with her therapist, Bree heads to New York to find out if Toby is hers.

For all of its socially conscious intentions, TRANSAMERICA is a misguided film with an awkward moral barometer. Writer-director Duncan Tucker’s strength is obviously not subtlety. The character of Toby couldn’t be written more obvious or pathetic. Toby’s mother committed suicide, his father is now becoming a woman and his step-father molested him. Couple this with the fact that he’s a coke-addicted male prostitute, and you have enough material for five edgy dramas. The central character of Bree is handled as well as possible, but I’m not quite sure someone in her circumstances can be empathetic. I certainly felt sympathy for Bree, and she comes off as genuinely decent person, but I didn’t come close to understanding her situation. This is where TRANSAMERICA drastically fails.

Grade: D+