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TransAmerica
The Weinstein Company LLC / IFC Films


8.0

based on 37 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 44 votes
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Rate this movie

FILM:

Boys to Men

MPAA RATING: R for sexual content, nudity, language and drug use

Starring Felicity Huffman, Kevin Zegers, Fionnula Flanagan, Graham Greene, Burt Young, Elizabeth Peña, Carrie Preston, and Grant Monohon

Bree (Huffman) is a perfectly adjusted conservative transsexual woman. Born Stanley, a genetic male, she's about to tale the final step to becoming the woman Stanley always wanted to be - until she finds out that she is the parent of a long-lost 17 year-old son (Zegers). Afraid to tell the rebellious teenager the truth, Bree embarks on a journey with him that will challenge and change both their lives and bring them closer to the truth of their connection. (The Weinstein Company / IFC Films)

GENRE(S):	Comedy \| Drama
WRITTEN BY:	Duncan Tucker
DIRECTED BY:	Duncan Tucker
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: May 23, 2006 Theatrical: December 2, 2005
RUNNING TIME:	103 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

Best Actress (Huffman), 2005 Tribeca Film Festival; Best Screenplay, 2005 Deauville Film Festival

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

Until it detours into dysfunctional-family comedy-drama, Transamerica rides cross-country without ever running low on bracing, cactus-spined surprises.

Film Threat Elias Savada

Transamerica is a modern-day Sullivan's Travels.

The Hollywood Reporter Sheri Linden

Impressively realized on all levels, this transgender spin on the road trip boasts an extraordinary central performance.

Variety Eddie Cockrell

Laugh-out-loud funny, tartly off-color and ultimately touching.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

This debut feature left me in a state of movie euphoria. Who could have guessed that such a discomfiting premise would blossom into a deadpan-hilarious and yet deeply affecting story about a singular glitch in the human condition?

Time Joel Stein

But the most impressive thing is how, a few minutes into the film, you stop noticing Huffman's external transformations and start to focus on the character. Not that the external stuff isn't impressive.

TV Guide Ken Fox

A flawed but nevertheless endearing father-son road trip with a distinctive twist.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

This drama offers a chuckle at every turn.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

The movie's soul is with Huffman. Speaking in a low voice, her posture as stiff as her vocabulary, her eyes a pool of sadness and hope, she turns this small, resonant film into a cry from the heart.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

Transamerica provides the frame and the occasion for one of the year's best performances, Felicity Huffman's as a woman trapped in a man's body who's passing for female while awaiting a sex-change operation.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

What a fine, tender, delicate, funny, gender-bending-and-rebending performance this is.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

What Felicity Huffman brings to Bree is the newness of a Jane Austen heroine. She has been waiting a long time to be an ingenue, and what an irony that she must begin as a mother.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

It's a farce with heart, a meditation on identity, family and gender politics that has real faith in its characters - even when the characters themselves lack it.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

It's debatable whether watching Huffman get dressed, take hormones, and learn to use a more feminine diction could sustain an entire movie, but the character is certainly a creation more original than a lot of the film itself.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

A perfect example of an ordinary movie made unique by the powerhouse performance of its lead.

Miami Herald Connie Ogle

Despite its subject matter, Transamerica is a surprisingly funny movie, because Tucker never lets the pathos overwhelm his sense of humor.

Dallas Observer Bill Gallo

You might feel constrained when it comes to a standing ovation, but there's certainly enough substance and yuk here to go along for the ride.

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

If Tucker's road map often feels a little too confining and the screwball comedy too contrived, he can take credit for introducing viewers to a character they have almost certainly never met before.

Slate David Edelstein

Farce born of sadly irreconcilable impulses: Bravo!

The New Republic Stanley Kauffmann

The real success of Duncan Tucker, who wrote and directed this debut feature, is that, through credible dialogue and sensitive performances, the basic idea overcomes its cleverness and is affecting.

The New York Times Dana Stevens

Transamerica itself does not always live up to its star, but it is touching and sometimes funny, despite its overall air of indie earnestness.

LA Weekly Ella Taylor

Transamerica is about as sexual as "The Brady Bunch." It's about an intelligent woman in excruciating transition to a new body that will line up with an identity she's held all along.

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

The best, and perhaps the only, reason to see Duncan Tucker's Transamerica is for Felicity Huffman's touching, shape-shifting performance.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

The unintended effect of all the melodramatic complications in Transamerica is, oddly, to distract attention from an understanding of exactly what that courage really costs.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Paula Nechak

It may not exactly be a traditional love letter to his wife but actor-turned-executive producer William H. Macy has given her a plum part as Bree in screenwriter-director Duncan Tucker's offbeat road movie.

USA Today Claudia Puig

Huffman is a woman playing a man playing a woman, which is easily the year's most complicated turn. She does a fine, nuanced job in bringing to life a character that could have become a caricature.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

As much heralded, "edgy" movies go, Transamerica fails to live up to expectations.

Empire Olly Richards

This is actually a very middle-of-the-road movie.

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

Felicity Huffman is such a wonder, at once funny and brave, playing a pre-op male-to-female transsexual in the uneven comedy Transamerica that she sustains several lapses that might otherwise have sunk it.

Chicago Reader Martin Rubin

An occasionally touching, more often clumsy variation on the formula of crusty oldster and problem child bonding on a road trip. The main reason to see it is "Desperate Housewives" star Felicity Huffman.

Village Voice Ben Kenigsberg

Pleasant even without reaching much of a destination, Transamerica leaves the basic impression that it's not as self-satisfied as it could have been.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

Never lets us forget that it's a nonmainstream story about a nonmainstream subject, when ideally, it should simply be a story about a person. The picture too often feels like a lesson in tolerance.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

Huffman intermittently rescues Transamerica from bathos with her brusque wit, swatting away the victimization elements that figure into most films about transsexuals.

New York Post Kyle Smith

Like a preoperative transsexual, Transamerica is neither one thing nor the other. It yanks at the heartstrings too much to qualify as an edgy comedy-drama, but it's far too bawdy to make it to the Hallmark Channel.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

By the way, the other thing that keeps Transamerica from being a mainstream movie is its obsession with penises: showing them, talking about them, placing us in bathrooms and trailers when they're in use.

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

Writer-director Duncan Tucker does little to develop his narrative setup beyond the basic and obvious, and his film begins to feel more like an exercise than a fully realized story.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

At its best, Transamerica made me laugh and feel for Bree. At its worst, it made me cringe at the potential creepiness of its central relationship.

The average user rating for this movie is 8.0 (out of 10) based on 44 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Redlight gave it an8:
Just great. its refreshing to see such a serious issue dealt with in a comic way.

Vicki W. gave it a10:
One of the best films I've ever. Huffman had me convinced she was a man playing a woman - an oscar caliber performance. I loved everything about the film. It was tender, funny, sad, warm and wonderful. I feel superb acting is rare - Huffman proved there are still actresses/actors that are willing to take the risk and throw themselves into a character 150%. Cudos to Huffman and the filmmakers. Not to forget the other actors, they are all great. I don't know who Kevin is, but I'd love to see him in a lot more films. He's wonderful. This film is a rare gem that should not be missed.

Jim G. gave it an8:
Well told story with interesting characters. Hard to suspend belief enough to imagine Felicity as a man, but definitely enjoyed her performance. [spoiler] One disappointment in the screenplay is the predictable mother figure. While Fionnula Flanagan is an incredible actress, it's a shame she didn't have a better script to work with. Maybe it is a case of stereotypes existing because they're shaded with truth, but I wonder how much more compelling this film would have been if the mother figure landed somewhere else on the bell curve.j Wonderful soundtrack of acoustic and americana music.

Linda A. gave it a9:
The acting is excellent in this movie. Felicity Hoffman is amazing -- I found myself totally believing that she was a man becoming a woman, even though I watch Desperate Housewives and know who she is. Very good film -- makes you think.

Meg B. gave it an8:
Very enjoyable, heartwarming story and high quality acting from most of the cast. I really liked the story and the originality of the script. About what I expected from reading reviews.

me wow gave it a10:
best damn hilarious movie ever! its a shame for those who aren't opened minded...they're just ppl who hate and will rot in hell.

Stephen gave it a6:
Actually, I wanted to give this one 6.5, but that score isn't in the system. It is a very enjoyable piece, make no mistake, but there are a few simple errors which hold it back. Although she never remotely resembles a genetic male, Huffman (as the MtF transsexual Bree) is terrific. However, the dignity and decorum of her performance are somewhat undermined by the bouffant campiness of Fionnulla Flanagan as her mother. Now, this is just a road movie with a twist, and like most road movies it has a few cameo scenes that don't make a lot of sense, but that can be overlooked. First problem - I don't usually pay the costumes much mind, but I found Bree's pink skirts and prissy heels quite distracting. They're not really what a TS woman would wear, especially out by the campfire, especially when she doesn't want to be taken for a transvestite. Second problem - in the crucial scene, where Bree's TS status is revealed to her newly found son, Bree's exhibitionist behaviour seems quite out of character. It would have been better all round if the son could have accidentally discovered her TS status by some less unlkkely means. The extra half point, by the way, would be for the sensible who-cares approach to the whole TS question.

TransAmerica The Weinstein Company LLC / IFC Films

TransAmerica
The Weinstein Company LLC / IFC Films