Two Movie Reviews

I wanted to pass along two movies that my wife Bobbi and I have watched that deal with transgender issues, and are very poignant and moving.

The first movie you probably haven’t seen. It is called “Normal”. Based on Jane Anderson's play "Looking For Normal," this deeply moving drama tells the story of Roy (Tom Wilkinson), a small town Illinois man who makes a wild declaration after blacking out on his 25th wedding anniversary.

Stunning his wife Irma (Jessica Lange), his kids, and the entire community, Roy announces that he's convinced he's a woman trapped in a man's body, and plans on going through with a sex change. What follows is a poignant, heartbreaking, and ultimately uplifting, story of Roy's attempt to live a normal life in a society that is unable to come to terms with his revelation. Writer/director Jane Anderson's extraordinary film features unforgettable performances by Wilkinson and Lang.

It was especially touching for me because it was set deep in the Midwestern farm country, which is where I grew up. It’s especially tough for folks who come out where the rest of the community is so traditional and resistant to change.

The second movie, that many of you may already have seen, is “Transamerica”. Felicity Huffman plays Bree, a highly educated, conservative transsexual woman who passes as a G.G., living in a poor section of Los Angeles and working two jobs to save money for her final sexual reassignment surgery.

Her life takes an unexpected journey when she learns that when she was a he, she fathered a son, now a teenage runaway hustling on the streets of New York. When she receives a phone call from Toby, who's looking for his father, she realizes she must confront her past. She flies to New York to bail Toby out of jail and offers him a ride cross-country, secretly plotting to abandon him with the stepfather he ran away from.

I hope these movie recommendations are helpful, because they are two movies I really enjoyed.