This Review Reveals Minor Details About the Plot.
Knotted Family Ties
Plot Overview
Stanley
Chupakhas has “never been able to stick to a decision. I
mean, 10 years of college and not a single degree.” He's
completed preparation for a sex reassignment procedure, but his
shrink Margaret (Elizabeth Peña) won't sign off on it until
he connects up with his previously unknown son Toby (Kevin Zegers.)
He has a reunion with him and they go on a road trip together to
California, the former as a stealthy she, Bree Osbourne (Felicity
Huffman.) In the course of their journey, they visit with neglected
relatives, a fellow traveler, a lonely suitor, and imagined snakes.
Ideology
Bree is
functioning in “stealth” mode disguised as a do-gooder,
church woman. Their attire matches, at least in this movie. The
apostle Paul enjoins (1Tim. 2:9)
“that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with
shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broided hair, or
gold, or pearls, or costly array.”
“Shamefacedness” has to do with being easily
embarrassed. The relevant note in my Franklin Electronic Bible
reads, “Early printer's error for
‘shamefastness’, which means modesty of
character.” The New Cambridge Paragraph Bible
restores the original ‘shamefastness’, and
the ASV
retains it, too. Bree takes a step of faith to start wearing
women's clothes—he's worn men's all her life. (2Peter 1:5) “And beside this,
giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue
knowledge;” She's to add the virtue of modesty of character
to that faith, which she pulls off by not wearing the “Proud
to be a Christian” baseball hat her son buys her. She is
altogether modest. Add to that virtue knowledge; a woman needs to
know what not to expose. It varies by culture or in this road trip
pic across America, the climate. In hot Arizona we see it's
acceptable for women to expose their midriffs because of the heat.
“And sobriety; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array.” Bree limits her alcohol intake to one sip with her vitamins. (2Pet. 1:6) “And to knowledge temperance.” She needs to add temperance to that knowledge, not getting all gussied up like some tranny queen “with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array.” In her case her goal is to have the junk removed from between her legs.
Production Values
“” (2005) was written and directed by Duncan Tucker. It stars Felicity Huffman a female playing a m–f tranny. She is too genuinely woman to pull off a modern sex change drama, but just right for a sci-fi creature constructed by better science than what we've got. Her droning falsetto is enough to cast a spell, but Dolly Parton's song—there's a video extra at the end—will bring one out of it.
MPA rated it R for sexual content, nudity, language and drug use. I happened to review this picture on the weekend of the time change back from Daylight Savings Time (DST) to Standard, and I was struck by the similarities. Primitive man went by the sun. (Psalm 104:23) “Man goeth forth unto his work and to his labour until the evening.” The advent of the village clock marked out his day in hours with noon being when the sun was highest in the sky, dividing morning from afternoon. In the evening he wound down and went to bed as soon as it got dark. Commercial interests figured out that if they convinced the society to make 1 pm correspond to the sun's apogee, there'd be one more hour of light in the delineated evening for shopping. Money wins out over the sleep disruption.
In this technologically advanced society pictured for us, Bree could be more profitable for her masters as a woman waitressing for Papi's Kitchen and telemarketing for the Home Shopping Network, than she would be as a man, so he's done the switch, which is no more invasive than changing one's clocks. The perennial problem is doing all the clocks in the house, and updating one's sex to all one's friends & relatives across the country. There are clocks one would prefer to ignore, but they must be done. That's the nature of this movie. Runtime is 1¾ hours.
Review Conclusion w/a Christian's Recommendation
I wouldn't call this movie a comedy. The jokes are groaners and the content too shocking to elicit laughs. It's just dandy as sci-fi, though, where we don't have to pretend a man can become a woman as their extraordinary technology—that we never see demonstrated—allows it. The dystopian society where this happens is nothing new to theaters. It might not be everybody's cup of tea; many sci-fi flicks are not. All I can say is that instead of complaining about the clock change again this year, I can just be thankful my brothers don't change into sisters.
Movie Ratings
Action factor: Decent action scenes. Suitability For Children: Not Suitable for Children of Any Age. Special effects: Well, at least you can't see the strings. Video Occasion: Good for a Rainy Day. Suspense: A few suspenseful moments. Overall movie rating: Three stars out of five.
Works Cited
Unless otherwise indicated, scripture quotations are taken from the Authorized King James Version (KJV.) Pub. 1611. Rev. 1769, 1873. Software.
Franklin note is from “The Bible Word Book,” R. Bridges and L. Weigle, Thomas Nelson 1960.
bibles.n7nz.org