But “Different for Girls” should give audiences a better idea of
what it’s like. This transsexual romance, which opens today at the Lumiere,
is not a gimmick picture, nor is it camp. It’s an emotionally truthful movie
that looks at the problems surrounding transsexuality. It becomes bigger
than its issues and seems to have more than surface meaning.
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The film tells the story of Kim, a prim, trim transsexual woman who
writes jingles for a greeting-card company in London. Kim (Steven
Mackintosh) is quite pretty from certain angles, and from other angles she
looks like a man sporting a tasteful Halloween costume. She has the
reserved, dignified demeanor of someone who has known ridicule and has now
found peace by minding her
own business and hoping that others will do the same.
In its own way, “Different for Girls” is a tale of opposites
attracting. Kim runs into Prentice (Rupert Graves), a reckless biker punk
who remembers her from boarding school, but as a boy. In flashback, we get a
taste of Kim’s school days, with scenes of her getting taunted as a sissy.
“Different for Girls” makes viewers uneasy by stirring
conflicting emotions. Kim’s delicate nature and basic kindness make us root
for her to find love. On the other hand, the movie doesn’t soft-pedal
Prentice’s helpless sense of horror at finding himself attracted to her.
“I’m straight, you know!” he tells her. And she answers, “So am I.”
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It’s a measure of director Richard Spence’s hon
esty that he didn’t cast a woman as Kim. Nor did he cast someone as
androgynous-looking as, say, Jaye Davidson, whom any straight fellow might
be attracted to after a few drinks. Mackintosh looks just female enough to
look plausibly attractive. When Kim talks about the changes that hormones
have made in her body — her skin is smooth, her breasts are bigger and her
hips have widened — we believe that Prentice could be turned on.
Yet Kim has a man’s shoulders, and a man’s broad facial
expressions. So audiences must ask themselves, along with Prentice, to what
extent is Kim really a woman? And what makes a woman a woman? And if Kim
isn’t a woman, what is she? And what does all this say about Prentice?
These, of course, lead to the really big question: Does any of this
matter, so long as it works? Maybe Kim is just Kim, and maybe Prentice
should allow himself to be Prentice and just relax.
There are all kinds of love relationships in this world, and
perhaps they all deserve a romantic comedy this unflinching and this
sensitive.
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