Huffman’s acting saves ‘Transamerica’

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In theaters

TRANSAMERICA, written and directed by Duncan Tucker, 104 minutes, rated R.

You could call her desperate. She might even agree.

Felicity Huffman’s Bree, a Los Angeles-based, pre-op transsexual male a week away from the knife, is on the cusp of calling it quits with her gender when into her life comes something of a surprise. Apparently, when Bree wasn’t in heels or on hormones or in a dress – and long before she tossed her birth name, Stanley, to the curb – she fathered a child with a former girlfriend, who has since committed suicide.

Their 17-year-old boy, Toby (Kevin Zegers), now lives in squalor in New York City, where he hustles to pay the bills and has done the sort of drugs that tend to land one in jail. That’s where Toby is stewing when Bree is given an ultimatum by her therapist, Margaret (Elizabeth Pena), who demands that Bree either visit Toby and deal with the issues at hand, or the operation is off.

Since the latter is out of the question for Bree, off she goes to New York, where she decides to pose as a Christian fundamentalist missionary eager to help young people like Toby. Having a transsexual play a church lady might sound like a deliberate stab at the far right – and maybe it is – but given Bree’s conservative drag and her refusal to use bad language, it isn’t the stretch it might seem on paper.

Still, good luck to Bree. What she finds in New York is a murky teenager who aspires to a life of making pornographic movies, not exactly the career move a newfound parent would choose for their child.

From first-time writer director Duncan Tucker, “Transamerica” occasionally feels like a sitcom cross-dressed as a drama, and vice versa. There are a few big laughs here – and one beautifully unexpected moment that comes as a genuine shock – but the undercurrent is serious. When Bree decides to bring Toby back to his stepfather in Kentucky, which collapses for reasons that won’t be revealed here, the story becomes a road movie about Bree and Toby’s journey across America and into each other’s lives. That’s a clich?, so it’s good news for the movie that it’s driven by its unique characters and not by its plot.

With Fionnula Flanagan as Bree’s scary mother, Burt Young as her father and Graham Greene as the man who romantically fancies her, the best part of “Transamerica” is Huffman’s Academy Award-nominated performance. She’s so good in the role, she keeps at bay the average film threatening to seep through.

What she mines in Bree is quiet dignity, desperation, fear and humor, the soul of a person who believes they were born the wrong gender and who is brave enough to face society and discrimination in an effort to fix that wrong. For the actress, that turns out to be the easy part. What’s difficult is that she had to overcome the rather formidable hurdle of being a woman playing a man who is one step removed from being a woman.

Not exactly easy, so watching this talented co-star of “Desperate Housewives” pull it off is something of a thrill.

Grade: B

On video and DVD

WALLACE & GROMIT: THE CURSE OF THE WERE-RABBIT, directed by Nick Park and Steve Box, written by Bob Baker, Box, Mark Burton and Park, 85 minutes, rated G.

“Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit” is literally your garden variety horror show, with directors Nick Park and Steve Box rubbing computer animation’s nose into something that very closely resembles mud.

In this, the best and most ambitious of the “Wallace & Gromit” lot, the story swirls around Lady Tottington (voice of Helena Bonham Carter) and her Giant Vegetable Competition, which has everyone around her in a snit. In Tottington’s town, you are what you garden, so naturally everyone here wants to win the top prize of the Golden Carrot.

Trouble is, fear has taken root within the hearts of these liver-lipped Brits. Apparently, bunnies are threatening the very existence of their prized produce, with one rabbit in particular – the towering, dreaded Were-Rabbit – gorging through everyone’s gardens. It’s up to Wallace and Gromit and their the pest control business, Anti-Pesto, to suck out the smaller bunnies with their Bun-Vac 6000, while also ridding the world of the Were-Rabbit, which leads to stunning revelations that won’t be revealed here.

Recently nominated for Best Animated Picture, no one should be surprised if “Curse of the Were-Rabbit” wins.

This is clay animation at its best, filled with appealingly zany, pop-culture riffs that borrow liberally from the classic Universal Studios horror movies of the 1930s and ’40s to the King Kong franchise to the British television show, “Keeping up Appearances.” The movie presents a departure and a new beginning for the franchise, with the film’s $80 million budget finding our heroes going Hollywood in a big way. The good news is that they haven’t sold out in an effort to do so. The essence of their relationship remains intact, with their bond just as vital as ever.

Grade: A

Visit www.weekinrewind.com, the archive of Bangor Daily News film critic Christopher Smith’s reviews, which appear Mondays in Discovering, Fridays in Happening, and Weekends in Television. He may be reached at Christopher@weekinrewind.com.

The Video-DVD Corner

Renting a video or a DVD? NEWS film critic Christopher Smith can help. Below are his grades of recent releases in video stores. Those in bold print are new to video stores this week.

Batman Begins – A

Black Dawn – D

Bride & Prejudice – B

Broken Flowers – A-

The Brothers Grimm – D-

The Cave – C-

Cinderella Man – A

CryWolf – D

Dukes of Hazzard – D

Elizabethtown – B-

Flightplan – B-

The Gospel – C+

Guess Who – C+

Happy Endings – C+

In Her Shoes – A-

The Interpreter – B+

Into the Blue – C-

Just Like Heaven – C+

Kingdom of Heaven – B-

Kung Fu Hustle – A

Lord of War – C

Millions – A-

Must Love Dogs – C+

Oliver Twist – B+

Red Eye – B+

Serenity – A-

Transporter 2 – B-

Undiscovered – D-

Upside of Anger – B

Valiant – C-