Transamerica

Transamerica is an American movie from 2005. It’s about Bree, who lives in California and is seeing a psychiatrist. The reason for this is that Bree really is a man, who wants to have a sex change operation.

‘She’ needs two psychiatrists to sign in order for ‘her” to go ahead with the surgery. Everything seems to be going really well, when suddenly, out of the blue, Bree gets a phone call from a seventeen-year-old boy who’s been arrested for drug possession and prostitution, in New York. The kid claims to be Bree’s son.

When Bree mentions this to her own psychiatrist, she realizes she won’t be allowed to have the surgery until she’s met and hopefully connected with the son she never knew she had. Not at all pleased, Bree sets out for New York.

Once there, she gets cold feet and tells Toby (the kid) she’s from a church – ‘The Church of the Potential Father’. She takes him back to his apartment, hoping she’ll be able to disprove the claim that he’s her son. Unfortunately, she recognizes a photo of a girl she/he dated at college.

Her plan to just drop the kid off at his place and go back and tell her shrink that they connected, but not that much, just falls through. Her ‘son’ wants to come back to California with the ‘missionary’ who bailed him out. He’s hoping for a career in the movies.

She gets talked into buying a used car to drive back home and when she leaves she has her son with her.

While talking to the boy she learns he has a stepfather and she makes a detour so she can reunite the two. That plan too, falls through, when she learns that the stepfather used to sexually abuse Toby for years, and that was why he ran away to New York to become a prostitute.

Once again, her plans didn’t pan out and when their car is stolen, Bree is forced to return to his/her parents. They are delighted to find that their wayward son has had a child. Bree isn’t quite as delighted to be back. Unfortunately, there’s a falling out between Bree and Toby, after he finds out who Bree really is.

Bree returns to California alone and has the surgery. One day Toby shows up again. You get the impression things might work out after all, even though they’re an odd family.

This movie surprised me by not being nearly as tragic as I thought it would be. Actually, I found it both comical and interesting. Both main characters and most of the minor ones were really good. You begin to care about them and want to know how they get on.

There are plenty of fun scenes, as well as some that are a bit tragic, but the main impression is quite nice. A feelgood movie in a quirky sort of way. Of course, you have to be prepared for nudity and some adult situations, but those are not the main point of the movie.

I really enjoyed this movie, you might like it too, just be aware of what it’s about.