‘TRANSAMERICA’
That's news to Bree, who as Stanley had had sex with a woman once, back in college and it had all gone so badly that ... oh, jeez.
The kid, Toby Wilkins (Kevin Zegers) is a 17-year-old street hustler, drug user and petty thief who, despite a roughed-up life, maintains a level of charm and naivete that keeps him from being a total pathological terror.
To Bree (and her psychologist, played by Elizabeth Pena), Toby is a loose end that must be reconciled before final surgery, scheduled for the end of the week. So the prim, conservative girl from Van Nuys flies to New York to deal with the son she fathered in an unhappier lifetime.
Despite Toby's caged-animallike wariness, Bree can't just abandon him to the mean streets nor can she pull the ultimate in-drag Darth Vader: "I'm your father, Toby." Instead she pulls a "Church Lady" routine, posing as a ministry maiden from a California sect with an absurdly funny name.
Through the magic of Hollywood script writing, this odd couple ends up driving back to California on the well-worn metaphorical path leading to growth, self-realization and - for once - a nonsappy ending.
Along the way, they encounter the sludge of society formerly known as Toby's stepfather (Jim Frangione), as well as a Texas Tupperware party of transgendered ladies, a duplicitous hitchhiker and a kind-hearted cowboy (Graham Greene) who takes a shine to Bree.
There are small but revealing adventures and much uncomfortable deception. Toby shoplifts his way across America, lies consistently to Bree and hoards her cash whenever he can get his hands on it. He's a user and a survivor. Of course, Bree is the one carrying the ultimate lie in her tastefully manufactured bosom.
Their path takes them to Phoenix and that pastel- and sunlight-drenched hell known as Stanley's family home. Her fundamentalist Christian mother Elizabeth (Fionnula Flanagan) and casually Jewish father Murray (Burt Young) and recovering alcoholic sister Sydney (Carrie Preston) greet the new Stanley with a mix of shock and awe.
Writer-director Duncan Tucker clearly believes that, for better or worse, we are the product of our parents. Stanley/Bree's mother, in her own archly dominating way, is as soul snuffing as the physically abusive stepfather who terrorized a young Toby.
Inevitably, Bree's secret must come out and Toby's response to this betrayal is both predictable and heartbreaking.
Tucker has managed an exquisite balancing act with "Transamerica." He has created a movie with edgy topics and characters, leavened with compassion, humor, charm and pathos. You can't help but feel for Bree (a Golden Globe-winning and Oscar-nominated performance by Huffman), a demure and educated lady encumbered with a man's plumbing.
Likewise, Toby draws you in with his seductive mix of streets and innocence.
There's no storybook ending here, but I'd take the one Tucker offers: We do the best we can with what we've got, we learn a bit about ourselves from those around us, we make slight accommodations along the way, and life goes on in spite of it all.
The DVD contains some features that fans of the movie will find appealing. There are filmed conversations between director Tucker and his two stars, Huffman and Zegers. There's an amusing blooper reel and for fans of irony, there is Dolly Parton's Oscar and Globe-nominated song video for "Travelin' Thru" and a making-of featurette.
ALSO THIS WEEK
"One Last Thing ..." (Magnolia, 3 stars) Dylan (Michael Angarano) is a typical teen boy in most respects. He loves his Philadelphia sports teams, he hangs with his buds, he's got a mad crush on supermodel Nikki Sinclair (Sunny Mabrey). He smokes pot, sure, but that is to relieve the pain from an inoperable tumor in his head and another in his lungs. When a make-a-wish organization gives him a last shot, he calls for his favorite Philly footballer (Johnny Messner) to take him fishing. At the last minute, he changes his mind: He wants to spend a weekend alone with the supermodel Sinclair. Hey, it's a last wish, you know? Nikki is not so crazy about the idea, but as Dylan himself observes - what's he got to lose? This is a funny and heartbreaking tale from TV writer Barry Stringfellow and music director Alex Steyermark - both of whom step up for their feature-film debuts. Cynthia Nixon escapes from TV to take on the role of Dylan's overwhelmed mother. This little gem zipped in and out of theaters before it could build an appreciative audience. Which is exactly why DVDs exist.
"Game 6" (Hart Sharp, 2 1/2 stars - 3 if you are a Red Sox fan) Nicky Rogan's latest play, "The Music Box," opens on Broadway on the same night as his beloved Boston Red Sox are playing the fateful Oct. 25, 1986, sixth game of the World Series against the Mets at nearby Shea Stadium. Rogan (Michael Keaton) is also on the brink of a marital bust-up (to Catherine O'Hara) because of an affair (with Bebe Neuwirth). Lurking on the fringe of his disastrous life is a lead actor with memory issues and a viperous stage critic (Robert Downey Jr.). Rogan wouldn't be the first Red Sox fan to blow off his own life and pin his fate on the fortunes of his (at the time) cursed baseball team. The script comes from renowned author Don DeLillo ("White Noise") and while it might slog at some points, the cast, characters and hook on a real-life moment make this a memorable night's viewing.
"Cheaper by the Dozen 2" (Fox, 2 stars) That good old all-American sprawling Baker family (parented by Steve Martin and Bonnie Hunt) hikes its brood up to the lake for a summer vacation. There they encounter the annoyingly perfect Murtaugh family (bred by Eugene Levy and Carmen Electra). Let the interfamily competition begin. Individualist Bakers versus tightly disciplined Murtaughs. You might want to pair it for the evening with the recent DVD comedy release "Yours, Mine & Ours," which covers the same turf from a different angle. The "CBD2" DVD includes a couple of short features on the film and a commentary from director Adam Shankman.
FROM THE VAULTS
"Blue Iguana (Paramount, 1988) A bounty hunter heads for South America to recover $20 million from a crooked bank.
"The Boondock Saints" (Fox, 1999) This unrated special edition supposedly adds footage to this cult favorite, although its stated time is two minutes shorter than the original 110-minute edition. A couple of brothers (fraternal twins) Connor and Murphy MacManus (Sean Patrick Flanery and Norman Reedus, respectively) believe it is their mission to rid Boston of corrupting mobster influences. The FBI thinks otherwise, as does the mob.
"Kingdom of Heaven: Director's Cut" (Fox, 2005) Director Ridley Scott takes another whack at this lush and problematic medieval crusader epic and adds more than 45 minutes to it. The film is being billed as an "entirely new cut" that expands on the politics, philosophies and ambiguities that underlay the Christian wars on the Holy Land. This is a four-disc set that also includes an introduction by Scott, commentary track, numerous features, storyboard comparisons, deleted and alternate scenes and coverage of the film's original theatrical and festival debuts.
"Winter Soldier" (New Yorker Video, 1972, documentary) On Jan. 31, 1971, more than 100 Vietnam veterans came together in a hotel in Detroit to talk about the unpopular war and their roles in it. The unprecedented gathering was captured by 18 filmmakers and edited into a harrowing study of the combat veterans who fought a war nobody wanted and the country they came home to.
IT CAME FROM TV
Season one: David E. Kelley's New England drama "Boston Legal" (Fox, 5 discs); Kyra Sedgwick's gritty detective drama "The Closer" (Warner, 4 discs) ... Season Two: The hyper-reality western "Deadwood" (HBO, 6 discs); The sci-fi mystery thriller "The 4400" (Paramount/CBS, 4 discs) ... First and second seasons: Nantucket airport sitcom "Wings" (Paramount/CBS, 4 discs) ... Season 10: The classic Korean War comedy "M-A-S-H" (Fox, 3 discs).
Also debuting this week, some entertaining compilation discs: From the "Saturday Night Live" vaults come "The Best of Commercial Parodies" and "The Best of Cheri Oteri" ... Universal Studios is also compiling the best episodes of worthy shows that experienced premature death on the tube: "Brilliant But Cancelled: EZ Streets" includes the two-hour pilot and two episodes from the gritty street drama. "Brilliant But Cancelled: Crime Dramas" contains episodes from "Johnny Staccato," "Delvecchio," "Gideon Oliver" and "Touching Evil."
An MTV movie about ridiculously sexy and competitive girl teen volleyball players, "All You've Got," debuts on the cable channel May 20 and on DVD three days later. ... On the more wholesome end of the scale, Disney's smash hit musical romp "High School Musical" makes its DVD premiere.
© Copley News Service
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