Different for Girls

I am a male to female transsexual, and all I can say is this is the first and ONLY film I have seen handle this subject matter with taste and tact.

It sat on my shelf for two years before I watched it. I have seen this theme abused and twisted too many times, and I had assumed the worst. I'm very happy to say I got a very pleasant surprise.

Steven Makintosh did a wonderful job of playing Kim, and the fact that Kim's body is not "perfect" is a touch of reality seldom shown when movies or television fictionalize transition.

It was an honest approach, as opposed to the the usual "and far less realistic" sexy female actress that a Hollywood would have insisted on using.

Kim does not live as a "transgendered person" as is implied in some reviews but as a normal white collar woman in London, her old school friend comes into her structured and very low profile life and turns it upside down from emotional outbursts in restaurants, to a confrontation with the police.

His growing acceptance of Kim as a woman, and their growing relationship are wonderful to behold.

I don't want to give anything away, but from yet another person who's "been there" the film went between having me on the edge of my seat to having me in tears.

I cannot rate this film too highly.

"For people who NEED a nitpick, I think seeing Pauls girl friends reaction to goings on would have been good, she sort of just drops out of the plot and you never really know why"

This film hit me like a lightning bolt. It brought tears to my face and almost restored my faith in the human race. It tries to tell us that even the unthinkable can be done if we accept the combined power of feelings and imagination. We see people struggle with age old morals, their youth and upbringing. We can almost taste the bitter loneliness of the adapted transsexual as we can actually feel the pain of the struggling rebel that (almost) cannot accept the discrepancies between memory and perception, between love, lust and friendship, between what's done and not done. The actors make it all believable and enjoyable. They live the parts that show true bravery in crossing holy borders.

Simple (if that's the right word) British tale of a hot headed rebel who meets up with an old school chum who's now a transsexual.

The script as filmed is almost (but not quite) as cloying as a Meg Ryan-Tom Hanks vehicle: it never really panders to the love story and it sacks trite 'witticisms' for honest language but it has just as faux-romantic of an ending as You've Got Mail or some other bit of schmaltz. However, the riveting performances by its leads help lift this film high above any mainstream pandering mush.

Rupert Graves has a high-voltage sexuality and never slips in his characterization of Paul; it's so common for actors to give some kind of Kabuki-like performance when playing volatility but he's amazingly real.

Steven Mackintosh is a revelation as Kim and his heartbreaking nuances capture an inner struggle between the mind and the heart with wonderful simplicity.

Saskia Reeves (perfect in Antonia & Jane) and Neil Dudgeon also stand out as the married couple who Kim turns to for support.

While far from being a great film, it trumps many, many, MANY other movies that try to be honest and believable in their depiction of gay or transsexual romance.

Alright...maybe this is too psychoanalytical an approach for the film, but here goes. Completely intrigued by the development of the principal characters and their evolving relationship, I took in 2 screenings of this film, as this movie is like an onion -which to get to the core of its subject and to understand its mystery, you have to peel off the multiple layers. A shower scene, a school picture, and a tabloid article are crucial clues that mold the dependency and sexual confusion that bonds the Prentice and Karl/Kim characters together. Their relationship has endured since highschool. We see a young man, who has subtly hidden his sex is embracing his feminine side in the schoolshower. Just before he gets the sh-- kicked out of him by homophobic schoolmates, another boy gallantly rescues the pretty boy from the mob. The audience immediately assumes that it is Karl who was questioning his sex in the shower--but disclosed in later pics, we discover that it is actually Prentice who was doing the introspection! Karl/Kim who could relate to the scene was the actual rescuer.

Portrayed as cool, bold, logical, and independent Karl/Kim presents him/herself with the unflappable reserve of a male personality, who feels dysfunctional with exterior male genitalia. Changing Karl to Kim remedies his/her warped body image, so that he can obtain the feminine exterior which appears so desirable. Expression of the dual conflicting natures can be seen throughout the film as she tries to overcompensate for this masculine interior of herself, by dressing in conservative woman's clothing and finding a feminine career as a Greeting card composer. Even her condo is done up in overtly feminine hues. Prentice is the antithesis of Kim. He is flighty, emotional, dependent and vulnerable. Contrasting Kim, he has an interior feminine nature that is contained in a masculine exterior that is repressed and hidden in a major bravado of masculinity. This is demonstrated with his embracing the fury of punk music, playing the leather-clad macho biker messenger, and keeping up an affront of being a boozer and rebel-rouser. Even Prentice's studio apt seems an exercise in testosterone proving, looking much like an uncleaned dormroom. Peeks at his interior femininity however do come through subtly- he fems up in a ruffled shirt for Kim, and wears a purple T-shirt under his workgarb. Look at Prentices enchanted glance to Kim, versus her patriarchial look back at him in the school pic. His eventual assertion that men are women with an added chromosone. In summation, Prentice completes Kim in that his feminine interior desires her masculine interior, while alternately his masculine exterior fulfills her (now) feminine exterior. If you don't look at Kim's Before/After photo in the tabloid, you don't realize that the character's gender roles were reversed in the school scenes. Kim becomes Prentice's rescuer once again when he emotionally loses it after their first date, and she must stand up again for him (this time it's police bullies) in court! When Kim strips for Prentice, It is like a mirror to the inside of his soul. Complex Film indeed!!!

Love, in Different for Girls, broke all boundaries. It went past the idea of straight or gay and went directly into the idea that two people can fall in love no matter what consequences or hurdles life may have awaiting for them. It went beyond the sexual parameters set forth in most films and instead lied them out on the table for the world to see. The was a very real love story. In fact, I would say it was one of the more true stories that I have seen on the screen for a very long time. You could see the chemistry, you could see the insecurity, you could see the beginnings of a beautiful relationship and it was perfect. You know the unsure feelings that you have when you first begin a relationship, the hesitancy, the butterflies, the stepping stones . well, they were all demonstrated in this film. I cannot speak enough of how real and true this film was. It confirmed my belief that you do not need to have the clichéd, pronounced roles of male and female to have a beautiful love story, all you need are two people and a heart that needs to be found.

The acting was decent. There could have been a bit more passion between the two, but I am not complaining. I completely understood what they wanted, where they wanted to go, and what they needed to do to achieve it. One of the most powerful scenes of this film was when Kim undresses and they make love. For the first time in cinema history, it was love and not sex. They did it to better their relationship, to say to each other that they were comfortable with their decisions. They wanted to say "I love you" in the best way possible. While no words were spoken, you were able to glance into their minds and hearts, and it takes very good acting to allow this to happen. They even demonstrate this even further when Prentice lays for a while after talking about what just happened and he ponders over what to do now he had no job or money and nowhere to live. Together they work on a solution. There is no "me" in this relationship. This is when Prentice decides to finally make his true feelings known in a very bold, yet beautiful fashion. You will have to see the film to experience the true emotion.

Overall, I was very impressed with this film. I loved the boundaries that it broke, again .. the truth that it spoke, and the realistic story that it presented. For those that will look at this review and get quinsy in their stomachs, I ask you think . what is so different between this story and most of the recycled Hollywood garbage that we watch on a weekly basis? My answer is nothing. If I have to watch a man and a woman kiss for twenty minutes on screen, I sure as anything want to see other parts of our culture as well. This was a beautiful film that will be used as a stepping stone for other films of this nature. While I cannot say that it was perfect, it was a start. I cannot wait to see where this film will take us in the future. I suggest this film to anyone that is looking to see a fresh story on a very old tale. Beautiful and amazing!!

Grade: *** out of *****