Duncan Tucker's 2005 comedy-drama road movie stars Oscar-nominated, Golden Globe-winner Felicity Huffman (pictured) as Sabrina "Bree" Osbourne, a man who is surgically meeting her desire to become a woman until her therapist, who can authorise the final operation, drops a bombshell.
As Stanley, Bree fathered a son. Toby (Kevin Zegers, pictured) is now a teenage male prostitute and in trouble with the law. Before Bree can have the final operation, she must meet up with him and resolve both his problems and her feelings. Bailing him out in New York, she agrees to drive him to LA. On the road, they learn about each other as Toby begins to accept both his father and his mother.
Huffman deserves her plaudits; a woman actor playing a man who is on the cusp of becoming a woman. Her role doesn't allow for OTT comedy but rather wry, observational humour. Nor is she allowed a touch of glamour; she distinctly dresses down and is tongue-tied when native American Calvin Two Goats (Graham Greene) makes a pass at her.
In contrast, Segers plays Toby as a foul-mouthed teenager whose sole ambition, despite being straight, is to star in gay porn films. But as he gradually understands his father's desire to change sex, so the film becomes a warm, humorous two-hander comedy about family values. Highly recommended.
Transamerica is a Film programme that first aired in 2005 and has been classified a 15 certificate.
