Terrence Stamp comes the closest of any actor in memory to playing a real-life transexual woman. Terrence has the appearance, sound, and hair. When I first read about this movie I realized is was a loser when the director failed to recruit an actor who really looks the part--a part NO biologic woman could ever play.

Maybe if the producers had hired a few t-women to advise them the movie would have been a signicantly improved. As a trans who has suffered all the ugliness our society can heap upon a transexual, I would love to see a more serious production that speaks to our lives and loves.

Thanks,

Petra

As a transsexual woman who is dying to see Transamerica when it reaches theatres, I read your review with interest. I'm almost sure I'll like the movie, and the review made me smile as well.

Its worth noting that the predjudice described is real enough. I tend to agree that specific reactions are all over the spectrum from both the left and right. The three things that I'm left with are that (a) there are strongholds of ignorance and cruelty which are as classically red state as you can imagine -- places where you get clocked and fired in twenty minutes; (b) most people want to be cool, and act accordingly -- the person who pulls the knife or offers to relieve you of life or fires you on the spot is generally an outlier, but they're real enough; and (c) in my experience of years of support groups and friendships with other transsexuals, the family reaction is generally as horrible as described, if not worse -- the most consistent pain I've heard is losing everyone you love, grew up with, and trust -- if anything the scenes described are a total soft pedal -- and those stories are told over and over and over.

Anyway, looking forward to the move :)

Why go see the movie? Zacharek pretty much gave away the whole plot right here

I'm not sure I saw the same Transamerica as this reviewer did. I thought the performances of both leads were quite good. And the only people who really seem to have a porblem with Bree are the people in her own family, especially her mother who is a bit of a characiture. But almost everyone else in the film, no matter where they happen to be living, accept Bree as a woman. They even meet a group of transexuals in Dallas of all places in one of the important scenes in the film.

And a minor point, the boy grew up in Kentucky, not Oklahoma. It's little facts like that that lead me to believe the reviewer wasn't really paying attention.

The only problem I had was with the improbably resolution to the main conflict in the story. Otherwise I found this to be a delightful and interesting film that is definitely worth seeing.

No one ever sees the films Ms. Zacharek sees, in my opinion. This is an excellent movie that has a few flaws, but not the ones seen by this reviewer.

I think that the failure to get the small details right is indicative of a pattern (cf. letters in response to the recent review of Rent).

I don't think the review gave away too much. This isn't a movie where the plot is so central that knowing significant parts of it in any way detracts.

For useful background and commentary on this film see the "Our favorite housewife" article in Salon (23 Apr 2005), the Terry Gross interview on Fresh Air with Felicity Huffman and William H. Macy (Huffman's husband and producer of Transamerica) from May 15, 2005 (which is apparently being re-aired on NPR stations today) and, especially for views about a female playing the MTF role, the imdb.com user comments (including a posting from one of the trans actresses who has a small role in the film).

Sorry, but I think that once again Ms. Zacharek has completely failed to provide a useful review of a very good movie.

Whether or not I agree with Ms. Zacharek's reviews, I always look forward to them. They're thoughtful, intelligent pieces of independent criticism and they're always worth reading, indeed, a lot of times, they're more worthwhile than the movies being reviewed. I wish Salon.com would use her talents a bit more in reviewing the sort of films that are usually covered in the 'Beyond the Multiplex' column. I'd like to see her take on some of these independent or foreign films.

The director of "Transamerica" explained at a film festival Q & A that he had decided from the get-go to cast an actress in the role of Bree. Traditional Hollywood depictions of transsexuals usually went for the "guy in a dress" stereotype, and the director felt following that "humorous" tradition would undercut his attempt to treat Bree with dignity.

There is a reason why Bree and Toby's relationship seems distant. Toby's endured a life where he expects people to screw him over emotionally. Guardedness is his emotional fallback position. Bree sees Toby as a physical manifestation of the past that she feels she needs to bury in a very very deep emotional hole before she can move forward with her life. She doesn't have any idea what part if any Toby will play in her future life, and doesn't want to deal with the emotional inconvenience.

Bree's bad makeup job made emotional sense, as this was someone still trying to get the little everyday details right about being a woman. The director did try to do his homework to render Bree's life as accurately as possible. Obviously, Stephanie Zacharek felt he did an inadquate job of translating those details into something dramatically compelling.

Aside from the encounter with Bree's family, I don't recall any other middle Americans really giving Bree a hard time about her transsexuality. Nor does "Transamerica" take "A History Of Violence"'s attitude of "scratch beneath the bland surface to uncover the monster at Middle America's heart." For me, it was simply a movie anchored by an incredible and dramatically challenging performance by Felicity Huffman. Needless to say, Huffman met the challenges of her role.