I usually avoid Transsexual movies as they make me uncomfortable ! That's why I avoided the movie "Transamerica" when it came out . But being a movie fan I kept reading reviews that were saying how great the movie was and how great the actors were . So I finally rented the movie in 2011 and viewed it for the first time . I had seen 'The Angry Inch' and it did nothing for me . Then I saw "A Soldiers Girl" and that movie stuck with me but it was violent . Then I viewed Transamerica and was at last entertained . Felicity Huffman , was an Oscar's performance to say the least and she did win that award . She was amazing and I do not think a male playing the role could have carried it off as well . All the actors were 100 percent human and able to reach the audience ! Kevin Segers is a bright spot in the movie as Toby , Bree's son that she did not know she had. Kevin's performance was nothing short of Oscar material , which he should have won something . There are a lot of great up and coming actors from Canada . And if it were not for the Canadians we would not have movies like this , and "The Barbarian Invasion''s . Hollywood just cannot come out of the closet long enough to make a movie in this genre , let alone in off the wall subjects. I gave this welcome flick 8 stars out of 10 . ciao yaaah69

TRANSAMERICA Written & Directed by Duncan Tucker

A perky spokesperson is on the television. "This is the voice I want to use," she repeats, staring directly into the camera. Bree Osbourne (Felicity Huffman) watches this instructional tape, using it as yet one more step to ultimately eliminate every trace of Stanley Schupack, the man she once was and biologically still is, or at least she still will be for the next week. Bree is a pre-operation, male-to-female transsexual with a definite distaste for all things supposedly male. This means anything vulgar or classless and even her penis. She would much rather embrace all that is delicate, artistic, and insightful. These conscious decisions show gender as a performance, a calculated choice to put forth the parts of you that you identify as more innately masculine or feminine in accordance with who you want to be. In Bree's case, the decisions she makes are often awkward and misplaced, from the jerkiness of her walk to her often difficult-to-process-how -she-rationalized-that-was-a-good-look- for-her ensembles. Despite that, the decisions she makes are her own and having made them and consequently sticking with them is more important than the decisions themselves. After all, she is about to make a much bigger decision that she will have to live with for the rest of her life

Just as Bree can almost feel the jarring cold of the surgical knife on her skin, she learns that her one sexual fumble with a woman back in college, when she was still Stanley, led to the birth of a child. (oh, those silly college experimentations.) That child, Toby (Kevin Zegers), has gotten himself arrested and sent to a juvenile detention unit up in New York City. In response, Bree's therapist will not sign off on her authorization to go ahead with the surgery if Bree refuses to confront this boy and her past. Upon meeting Toby, Bree learns that he hustles to earn a living and enjoys his hallucinogenics while he is still holding on to his dream of making it in the movies. He aims high but he's still a realist, acknowledging that his big future in the film industry will likely be in gay porn. From the looks of him in his undies, I dare say he's a pretty perceptive kid, not to mention a good shot at success. In the driver's seat we have a timid and awkward father who will soon be a mother but has not divulged this much to her son. In the passenger seat, we have an ambitious and bright young man who has lost his way without realizing. And thus begins the great transamerican road trip from New York City to Los Angeles. Bree's seemingly unsolicited act of kindness inspires Toby to be a better man and return that kindness to this stranger. This cycle continues along the way as we watch two people who are so acutely aware of the roles they portray to the world, shed their thick skins and take on new roles without even realizing they're doing it. One is trying to be heard right now and the other has tried for so long not to be seen. Yet on this cross country trek, they both leave these acts they're so used to aside and embrace their new selves as a mother who helps her child see his worth and a child who makes his mother feel more like a woman than any instructional videotape or hormone she's ever seen or taken.

Felicity Huffman knows how to play a reluctant mother. As the exhausted mother of four, Lynette Scavo on television's DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES, Huffman exhibits her strengths as an actress by playing Lynette as a woman who relies on her instincts. She is protective and fierce while still sensitive and nurturing. While her television character's hesitation comes from a lack of confidence in her abilities to embody one of life's most natural roles, her TRANSAMERICA film persona holds back for mostly selfish reasons. She has not felt like herself her entire life (The look of disgust on her face when a doctor asks how she feels about her penis hits hard for how quick and harsh a reaction it is). Having a problem son to deal with and eventually confront regarding his misconceived notions about his birth father is a direct obstacle that she had not counted on. This is her initial fear but Bree is actually terrified that she has no nurturing capabilities just like her television counterpart. It is only by spending time with her son that she comes to learn that she has much wisdom to impart upon him, that she was not ruined entirely by her parents or that she could stand to learn a thing or two from him as well.

The issue of control, having it in one's life or over one's self is a struggle for most but can be even more of an arduous challenge for marginalized people, like a transsexual person. He or she not only needs to ingest numerous hormones in order be more like the person they feel they are inside which is in complete contradiction to the body they've been given but they then have to deal with the ignorance and judgment that is given to them each time they put on their armor and walk outside their door. TRANSAMERICA is a film about learning how to incorporate the person you've always known yourself to be, the person you so desperately want to become and about healing the relationships with the people you meet and touch along the winding road that gets you there.

Bree Osbourne has been a woman trapped in a man's body all her life. She has come to the decision that will change her forever and perhaps live a happier life, than the one she has led up to that moment when we meet her. Unfortunately for her, fate intervenes in a way she didn't even planned upon.

Duncan Tucker, the director and writer of "Transamerica", takes a difficult subject and expanded on it. This is not exactly what any Hollywood films dare to present to a general audience since it deals with a frank approach to a subject that is not commonly seen treated so honestly and with so much integrity. Mr. Tucker shows a respectful restraint in the way he shows his story that is never shocking, or in one's face.

"Transamerica" is basically a road movie. It takes us to New York, first, where Bree has come to bail out the son, Toby, she never knew about, but who appears to be a real person, and he stands in the way, since Toby, the young man, is suddenly her responsibility and she must face the consequences. "Transamerica" is a cross country trip where two people get to spend some time together as they travel this vast country from New York to Los Angeles.

Toby, a male hustler working the streets of Manhattan, questions Bree's motives because he doesn't want any part of what she proposes to him. First, a stop to see his step-father is something he would rather not do. He doesn't have any happy memories of a man that has abused him sexually while he lived at home. Toby, for all his street smarts, evidently doesn't even guess what Bree is really like until an incident where he discovers the truth.

"Transamerica" is a film about discoveries. Bree is at first horrified when she is told about Toby. Little by little, her instincts start smoothing things over, until she accepts the teen ager as a part of herself. The relationship between them flourish along the highways where they are seen traveling and make them come closer together, as they should.

The best thing to see the film is because of the wonderful job Felicity Huffman does in her portrayal of Bree. The actress disappears in the role in ways one couldn't imagine. The mannerisms of the trans gender woman are captured almost effortless by Ms. Huffman, who carries the film on her shoulders and runs away with it. Her performance is nothing but perfection.

Kevin Zegers plays Toby, the son Bree knew nothing about. It's a credit to this young actor to blend perfectly with the more experienced Ms. Huffman and making this young man true to life. The supporting playing by Fionnula Flanagan, Burt Young, Elizabeth Pena, and Graham Greene, among others, compliment the film well.

The credit for presenting this film belongs to the courage of Duncan Tucker, who wrote a beautiful screen play and then directed with love and understanding for a thorny subject.