YOUR MOTHER’S GOT A PENIS : Duncan Tucker’s ‘Transamerica’ [8/10]

In 2004, Variety magazine's Todd McCarthy hailed Alexander Payne's Sideways for "single-handedly restor[ing] humanism as a force in American films." There's much to like about Sideways, a shining example of humanism it most emphatically isn't: Payne undoes much of his good work by patronising his minor characters, who are as broadly-caricatured as his central quartet are finely drawn. If there's any American film of the present decade deserving Variety's startling accolade, it's the much-less-ballyhooed Transamerica by debutant writer-director Duncan Tucker.

Sure, Tucker's star Felicity Huffman was recognised with an Oscar nomination for the film's terrific, funny, heartbreaking, utterly convincing central performance as trans-sexual Bree Osborne – but it says all you need to know about the current sorry state of the Academy that (a) Huffman lost out for Best Actress to Reese Witherspoon's appealing but decidely inferior turn in Walk the Line and (b) Transamerica obtained zero nominations in any other category. That's a double injustice to what is by any measure one of the most accomplished and entertaining films of 2005 – that very rare movie which is likeable and admirable in equal measure.

Though (like Payne) far from the finished article as a director, Tucker has crafted a fine screenplay here, its loose, episodic structure packed with sharp dialogue and memorable characterisations. Above all, he deserves major credit for taking potentially mawkish/melodramatic material – not to mention a fundamentally hackneyed road-movie premise – and coming up with something fresh, original and consistently surprising (even the very first shot catches you off-guard).

The story is somewhat involved: on the verge of her final gender-reassignment surgery, Bree discovers that she may well have fathered a child in her former life (when known as Stanley). The kid has grown up to be Toby (Kevin Zegers), a semi-delinquent teenager living in a pokey Manhattan flat, supplementing his income – and paying for his drug habit – with occasional work as a prostitute. Bree's counsellor (Elizabeth Pena) says she has to deal with her past before she can move forward into her new future. This entails travelling from Los Angeles to New York, bailing Toby out of custody, and taking him back to his foster parents in the mid-west. This reunion is such a disaster that the cash-strapped Bree and Toby hit the road again, heading to California where Bree is scheduled for surgery and Toby dreams of a career in the porn industry. Detours and complications rapidly ensue…

Over-educated (she speaks French!); fussily self-conscious; well-meaning but socially maladroit, Bree is a strikingly vivid creation – and the charismatic/loutish Toby provides an effectively contrasting foil. The humour – and the film is frequently laugh-out-loud funny – emerges organically from the characters and their situations, so there's never any feeling that we're merely laughing at the on-screen comic shenanigans, or are being in any way distracted from their underlying seriousness. Though it can perhaps be crudely pitched as Boys Don't Cry meets Five Easy Pieces, Transamerica rapidly establishes its own character and rough-edged charm: we get plenty of good pictures which are tough, nasty or cynical, but every now and again it's refreshing to find one that's genuinely warm, sweet and big-hearted – without sacrificing any shred of intelligence or believability in the process. How's that for a change..?

Neil Young
5th April, 2006

TRANSAMERICA : [8/10] : USA 2005 : Duncan TUCKER : 103 mins (BBFC timing)
seen at The Tyneside Cinema, Newcastle-upon-Tyne (UK), 26th March 2006 – public show