...of this film. Felicity Huffman's character was so unlikable. Toby was hot but a little *beep* And it just seemed like everything was gone about the wrong way alltogether. And I just don't like Felicity Huffman at all. Her acting is mediocre in everything I've seen her in and she already looks like a man without the extra help of the film. Well, I can't like every movie I see I guess.
shareA lot of the praise is due to the subject matter, topics that aren't often addressed. Transsexuality, male prostitution, children of transgender parents, and the issues of family of transgender people.
shareI'll give it that much. But the way Bree was acting was very unusual. It's not how people act. I was happy to see Calpernia in the film though. Didn't know she was in it.
shareShe was acting as a woman of class, she was feeling her way into
a new role, and trying not to be thought of as trashy, she was
being a lady...
I could never figure out how Toby couldn't have known about Bree from the beginning, especially with him being so street smart being a male prostitute. Surely he must've come in contact with transsexuals that it wasn't that alien to him.
I also agree that Bree was too self-centered and self-serving to be likable.
@ ClamsCasino60 who wrote:
"I could never figure out how Toby couldn't have known about Bree from the beginning, especially with him being so street smart being a male prostitute. Surely he must've come in contact with transsexuals that it wasn't that alien to him."
This is a very good observation! I just saw the film, and I, too, think it is overrated. I can understand people being happy to see a film with non-traditional characters, especially if those characters represent them in some way. It is akin to the people who flock to Tyler Perry films because they star an underrepresented group in Hollywood. However, there still should be some quality to the film.
***SPOILERS***
Parts of the story in this film were not well developed and at times just felt off. What was the point of making Toby a male prostitute and porn actor? I didn't get the point of incorporating transgender and gay characters in this way. What were the filmmakers trying to do by making the son of the transgender man/woman gay? And then the incest arc? The kiss and the son standing nude in a sexual manner before his parent whom he wants to seduce? What was the point? What was worse than including it was not resolving it. Did the characters both have to be so extreme to tell the story? The acting overall was good, though Bree was portrayed in an odd manner. That said, I didn't find this movie to be anywhere near as good as the reviews/comments suggest.
Most of the praise comes from the fact that the main character isn't murdered (or a murderer), bashed or a psycho freak. Trans people have been portrayed as all of these in a lot of films, treated as freaks, curiosities and draw cards by the producers and directors.
So the praise is really for the fact that the main character isn't any of these, is alive by the end of film and has a future (of sorts). It's a bit the portrayal of negroes in a lot of American films until the 1960s, where they tended to play stereotypes instead of real people (wise nanny, goofy porter et cetera). Bree isn't a stereotype, whether you like her or not.
Laura S
I actually thought her performance was one of the best things in the film.
And for a film made on a budget of only 1 million dollars, it looks fantastic.