Transamerica

Director: Duncan Tucker

Starring: Felicity Huffman, Kevin Zegers, Fionnula Flanagan

Filmed before her Desperate Housewives days, Felicity Huffman plays Bree Osbourne, a pre-operative male-to-female transsexual in an Academy Award nominated performance.

On receiving a phone call, Bree learns that not only has she fathered a teenage son (Zegers) in a clumsy past encounter, but also that he is currently in jail. After persuasion by her therapist, she flies to New York, posing as a Christian missionary, and invites her son, Toby, on a road trip back to Los Angeles. What she does not reveal, however, is that she plans to leave him with his stepfather along the way – an encounter that helps to explain Toby’s inner demons.

Transamerica truly is a cinematic masterpiece, thoroughly deserving of the plethora of awards thrown at it. Wrenching scenes exploring Bree’s inner torment combine perfectly with light, witty humour from both Huffman and Irish chameleon Fionnula Flanagan, who plays Bree’s frenzied mother. The audience accompany Bree and Toby on their journey of family, gender, sexual orientation and expectation in a film that you will never want to end.

Ricky Wyatt