Amazing America

Travelin' through Trans: Transamerica tells the story of transgendered male-to-female Bree Osborne is all set for her sexual reassignment operation in LA. Unfortunately, life has other plans for her. She finds out that she has a 17-year old son, Toby, the product of a relationship with a woman when Bree was Stanley. Bree decides to pretend she's a missionary and picks Toby up and the two drive to LA. What Bree soon realizes is that she is the only friend Toby has and with his mother dead he doesn't have anyone who will give him a loving and stable home. The two become close while travelling and while Bree struggles with her new identity and the impending surgery, she now must deal with the fact that her 17-year old son is an emotional mess. Eventually Toby does find out who Bree really is and that his father is soon to be gone forever and the two of them must deal with that hurt and pain. Kevin Zegers (of the Air Bud movies fame) gives a gritty performance as Toby and even if there weren't Oscar talk for Felicity Huffman, watching her performance is like watching a neon sign flashing Oscar, Oscar. She gives a funny, touching performance as a woman playing a man who is soon to become a woman. Yes, I know, Julie Andrews did that performance in Victor/Victoria, however, this is a movie about a transgendered woman dealing with the fact she is lost just like the young kid riding with her. The film was actually filmed in 2004 between the shooting of the pilot of Desperate Housewives and the start of the first season of the show. The film has a number of funny scenes but none of them ever cross the line to derision or make Bree a joke. Huffman handles the role adroitly and even without the makeup and the large ears, the voice and acting is all Huffman. I've known that she was very talented since I saw her on Sports Night (the short lived ABC show from the 90's). With Transamerica she hits it out of the park and scores! We went to see this film as a church group and we had 17 people show up; that's a record. Just about everyone was agreed that the film was terrific, heartwarming, well acted and not overly sentimental or depressing.