Boy Meets Girl

Boy Meets Girl (2014) was directed by Eric Schaeffer. Rickie, played by Michelle Henry, has known she's a woman since childhood. The problem is that she was born in a man's body. She has been transgendered medically, but not surgically. The people of the small town in which she lives know all this, and they've accepted it. (I live in a small town, and this rings true. People may think transgendering, or being lesbian, or being gay, is a little strange, but Ricky is one of their own, and they accept her for what she is.)

Ricky's straight best friend Robby, played by Michael Welch, truly cares for Ricky. There are some funny scenes where Robby tries to answer questions about what heterosexuals do when they make love. Remember that Ricky has male genitalia. When she's attracted to a beautiful straight woman, she doesn't exactly know how it all works. The beautiful woman is Francesca, who is engaged to a Marine. He's stationed in Afghanistan. He's there, Ricky is here, and romance with Francesca develops.

I felt that the plot weakened at that point, and that the last portion of the film didn't live up to what we had seen before. Even so, I highly recommend Boy Meets Girl. It's charming and worth seeking out.

We saw this movie at the Little Theatre as part of the brilliant ImageOut Rochester LGBT Film Festival. It will work well on DVD.

I was browsing through Netflix and decided to give this film a spin. I am so glad I did! "Boy Meets Girl" is funny, poignant and heartfelt. The characters, particularly Ricky (Michelle Hendley), Robby(Michael Welch) and Francesca (Alexandra Turshenbrought) compellingly displayed the angst, conflict and ultimately courage, compassion and humanity of what it means to be loved and accepted for who you are even when the likelihood of the pain of rejection for not conforming to "traditional norms" could be the price that is paid.

This is an uplifting and inspirational movie which handles some very profoundly charged themes in a warm, witty and upbeat manner with a cast that absolutely aced it with their performances.

All this middle-aged traditional heterosexual married fella has to say is "Bravo, Well Done." And my Mrs. offered to share the Kleenex.

A movie is the sum of its parts, its got to be interesting, be cast well, be believable even when its science fiction of a fairy tail and the characters... well... you have to care what happens to them.

Though the story line is closer to fairy tail in today's world than reality, the performances are so good you don't think about this at the time.

Ignore the 1 star from digital pimple, I am yet to see any reviews from said person higher than a 2.

Michelle(the lead) was so credible as Ricky it leaves you pondering if the story is autobiographical though it clearly isn't.

Just superb.

The real value of this movie demonstrates how important it is to be honest in all of your relationships (family, friends, acquaintances, and committed relationships). The dialog, scripting, and acting--all wonderful, real, and warm. At first, I became clear that this movie does have aspects that are uncomfortable to watch, and so I really didn't want to finish watching the movie. But, my inner wisdom nudged me forward, and I'm so glad that I watched it to the end. The film really has some heartfelt moments, and there is a nice payoff...things do eventually take place in this story that make you feel good inside. On a higher level, this film challenges your beliefs, and how you view the particular 'national culture' that you have known throughout your life. I highly recommend giving this film a look.

Conceptually, I really liked Boy Meets Girl. It managed to twist the conventional narrative of a transgender woman coming to terms with her identity, and the challenges that come along with it, on its head and have it so that it is the other characters who are unsure of themselves and are seeking clarity and the conviction to be who they are. Unfortunately, unlike the lead characters, the script never found this clarity and conviction to make good of its concept and finds itself train-tracking cardboard characters through stilted conversations and coming-of-gender conventions leaving the whole film feel to feel just a little bit flat at the end of the line.

It is a shame that we have to talk about casting and how it is commendable that an actual transgender actress was cast in the lead role. Michelle Hendley certainly looks the part as Ricky Jones; she is a beautiful transgender woman playing a beautiful transgender woman on screen. The problem is that, based on this performance, she is just not a very good actress. Her delivery never felt natural, regardless of whether she was trying make a snarky comment at an acquaintance or simply serve a customer some coffee. This is made even more noticeable by the performance of Michael Welch as her non-gay best-friend who manages to convey his conflicting feelings with passion and depth, which made it so disappointing that his character was so under-written.

The issue with the script itself is that all of the characters felt as if they existed to interact with Ricky and didn't have enough screen-time to get to really know them so you could understand the journeys that they were going on. This meant that when it was time for them to do the things they needed to do to make the story go forward it rarely felt like it was their choice. There were still moments of comedy and pathos that made the film enjoyable, and it is all very, very sweet, but there wasn't much to think about beyond the superficial once the credits kicked in.

Overall I would say that your enjoyment of this film will very much depend on how much you buy into the lead character. If you can relate to them and project your own personality and experiences onto them I suspect that you'll be left feeling very happy. If you are looking for a character to make you think about yourself, then this is not the film you are going to meet them.