Transamerica

We saw a wonderful film last night, Transamerica. I was very touched by its portrayal of a transgendered person who discovered that he had a teenage son a week before his final sex change surgery. Journeying across America, Bree (formerly Stanley) and Toby slowly discovered each other and their own past. It was a story filled with emotions, and I thought the actors (especially Bree, played by Felicity Huffman) did a superb job, not just in playing their own parts (a man yarning to be a woman, and a troubled but fundamentally good teenager with no sense of future or goals), but in relating to each other in a bittersweet parent-son relationship. In particular, the scene of the family reunion with Bree's parents touched me deeply--it reminded me of the complexity of family love and acceptance.

What is interesting is when I looked up the trailer hoping to finding a picture to upload onto here, I found that the movie was previewed as a "hilarious" "classic American comedy", which is totally different from my impression of it. The clips they chose to show were the rare and brief humerous moments about gender/sex mixup, something totally tangential to the plot. First of all, I would never consider it a comedy. In the film, Bree's life as a transgender is neither hilarious nor even funny; it's a little sad and filled with very human elements. Secondly, the movie's advertising decision is misleading in a curious way. Are they attempting to attract viewers who are interested in simply getting a laugh out of this confusing man/woman character to satisfy their curiosity ?

I am glad I didn't see the trailer first; otherwise I probably wouldn't have gotten to enjoy this wonderful film.