Thursday, January 26, 2006

Review: 'Transamerica'

Huffman gives killer performance as man

BILL MULLER

The Arizona Republic

It's easy to see why some file "Transamerica" with "Brokeback Mountain" and "Capote," but the movie deserves to be considered on its own merits.

Entertainment writers love trends, and on the face of things, those movies seem to be part of one: award-winning films about people who are not traditionally heterosexual.

But "Transamerica" is no more similar to "Brokeback Mountain" than "Brokeback" is to "Capote." The films are wildly different, from the acting to the scripts to the direction. It just so happens that "Brokeback Mountain" and "Capote" have lead characters who are gay, while "Transamerica" stars Felicity Huffman as someone undergoing a sex change.

Huffman plays Bree, an L.A. man who needs one more operation to complete his transformation to a woman, who learns about a long-lost son, fathered years ago. Out of a sense of duty, Bree (dressed as a woman) travels to New York City to see Toby (Kevin Zegers), a street kid who's being fast-tracked into the "Midnight Cowboy" school of business.

Pretending to be a concerned Christian do-gooder, Bree rescues his son from the authorities and the two embark on a cross-country trip. At one point, Bree tries to ditch the boy, but the conditions aren't favorable, so they stay together.

Of course, Bree is hiding many things from Toby, including his real gender and actual relationship to the boy. Toby is up to his old ways, seeking drugs and selling himself in a roadside-diner bathroom, scenes that make "Transamerica" a tough sell for the family-values crowd.

But such unflinching sequences give "Transamerica" its own identity, especially with regards to sex. "Capote" doesn't really contemplate the issue, while "Brokeback Mountain" includes one rough-and-tumble scene. In "Transamerica," the story is more the nudity, which is unabashed but there for a reason.

Those details pale next to the performance of Huffman, who is amazing in the role. There's no better tribute than a comment I heard after the screening, when someone asked which actor plays the main character in the movie. Despite Huffman's status as a suburban hottie on "Desperate Housewives," she convinces many an audience member that she's a man.

Huffman, who won a Golden Globe for her performance in "Transamerica," is following a familiar path to glory. In 2003, Charlize Theron won an Oscar by concealing her knee-buckling good looks to play a murderous hooker in "Monster."

Although we all run around lumping "Transamerica" in with "Brokeback Mountain," the Theron film offers a better comparison, not because Huffman's character is a killer but because both actresses give killer performances that dominate their respective films to the exclusion of all else.

Although "Brokeback Mountain" is poetic (mostly because director Ang Lee is a poet), "Transamerica" has a completely different feel.

Writer-director Duncan Tucker (who filmed part of the movie in Arizona) is not nearly as skilled as Lee; "Transamerica" is an abrupt but unforgettable movie with rough edges that lend it even more resonance.

'Transamerica'

Muller's grade: A

Rating: R for sexual content, nudity, profanity and drug use

Length: 103 minutes