Transamerica

Felicity Huffman is unrecognizable and stunning as Bree, a soon-to-be transsexual who finds out he/she is the father to a Toby (Kevin Zegers), a young, troubled boy. Toby is unaware of Bree’s parental status when Bree bails him out of jail. They wind up on the road together, slowly working up to that moment when the truth is revealed. The film is very funny in many moments and heartbreaking in others. Huffman’s is one of the more remarkable performances of recent memory (a woman playing a man who’s becoming a woman), and her work is wholly convincing. Zegers matches her talent every step of the way, playing a misguided youth who seems 100-percent real. When Bree winds up at the house of her/his parents (played wonderfully by Burt Young and Fionnula Flanagan), the movie crosses over into emotionally satisfying territory. One of 2005’s more original films.