Transamerica

Yet another road movie about a pre-operative male-to-female transsexual who finds out that she fathered a son 18 years earlier. And, as in all such films, her sadistic therapist tells her she can’t have her dingle resected until she flies across the country, buys a car and then drives around the U.S. of A. with her unsuspecting child, wondering if she should tell him that (a) she’s a he, sort of, (b) she’s his father and (c) life is a magical journey wherein it makes sense to not do so much heroin. In spite of this time-worn plot, Transamerica is loaded with good dialogue, and it features one of the best performances of the year: Oscar nominee Felicity Huffman plays Bree, the pre-op in question, and she seems so much like a man trying to act like a woman that I’m betting this film will cause the religious right to get all confused and wind up accidentally saying nice things about the ACLU.