Transamerica
2005
***
Director: Duncan Tucker
Cast: Felicity Huffman, Kevin Zegers, Graham Greene, Fionnula Flanagan, Burt Young, Carrie Preston, Elizabeth Peña
A transsexual woman is about to have the final reconstructive surgery when she discovers that she fathered a child 18 years earlier. She bails the boy out without revealing her true identity and takes him on a road trip from New York to Los Angeles. Most journeys in films are about the characters discovering who they really are, but this one is about her family discovering who she is. Felicity Huffman gives a bold and moving performance, and her vulnerable character is the heart and soul of the movie. The teenage son, by contrast, is uninteresting and frankly irritating, and not that credibly played by Kevin Zegers. The central characters are certainly edgy but otherwise this is a predictable road movie.
