Doctor_Mongoose

Whilst the rather obvious title of this review is designed to both serve as a brief plot description and a review summary, for the first 20 mins or so I thought the film was going to ruin my fun by being at least semi-intriguing.

You are introduced to the main characters of the film, a fairly young family with two children, in a car ride to their too good to be true beachside paradise retreat, and you immediately get a sense of unease and the feeling that there is something going on beneath the surface, something that you would like to know more about.

Sadly, you wouldn't even need a bucket and spade to get to the depth the film delivers and instead you are treated to banal characters with no reason to empathise with their plight and have to sit through an epoch-spanning, turgid bore-fest where everything goes in exactly the direction you expect.

The most annoying thing about it was that there were no hints as to why everything was happening meaning instead of being horrifying and mysterious everything just felt absurd and drab. Towards the end when they realised that they hadn't given any reason for any of the preceding events they tried to rush in an explanation as to why everything was happening, an explanation that would have been fine if they had set any groundwork for it in the previous hour and a half, but because they didn't you were left feeling as if they could have substituted literally any other reason and the film wouldn't have played out differently.

Definitely less of a dream trip away and more of a tripped over your own shoelaces. Avoid.

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.

It is difficult to review this film without referring to the performance and casting of Victor Polster as the Girl the title refers to. Both appear to be quite polarising. There seem to be many reviewers who feel his portrayal was brave, emotive and mature as an adolescent ballet dancer going through a transitionary period in her life in more ways than one: moving to a new school and meeting new people, moving to a different apartment, and, of course, the crux of the film, taking the next step in confirming her gender identity by taking hormones with a view to having gender reassignment surgery in the future. There also appear to be many people, mostly people who identify as either transgender themselves or part of the wider LGBT+ community, who think that the performance and casting is offensive and lacks the nuance that only a real-life transgender actor could bring to the role. Personally, I cannot believe I watched the same film as anyone who thinks that his performance was anything less than exceptional.

Ballet as an art-form creates beauty out of pain, patience and practice, and Lara's journey to become a better dancer runs in parallel with her journey to physically become the woman she believes she is. The routine physical exhaustion and bleeding toes she experiences whilst dancing provide a visceral contrast with the emotional challenges of day-to-day living she has to face, such as showering or going to the toilet, whilst living in a body that just doesn't fit. Victor Polster manages to convey these experiences and emotions, showing an intense determination and underlying vulnerability that never spills over into melodrama. The question of whether or not he should have been cast in the role in the first place is moot as it is evident that he was up to the task. Morally I do not see any reason why a non-trans actor cannot play a trans role if they have the ability to do so, in the same way that an actor does not need to have kids to play the role of a father or mother. I believe that he got the role on merit, in the same way that Daniela Vega got the lead role in A Fantastic Woman, because they were the best person for the job.

Where the film falls slightly flat, however, is that there are no other fully fleshed out characters apart from Lara, and although the film focuses around Lara's pain and experiences in the here and now, there isn't always a clear motivation for her actions. It isn't even clear why she is so keen on becoming a dancer in the first place. I'd like to have seen more of the father and younger brother and how their lives were affected by Lara's situation.

Ultimately it is a painful portrait of a young woman fighting to be who she wants to be that could have benefited from widening the scope and delving into the lives of other characters more in order to give more weight to the situations Lara found herself in. I also feel that the ending, although earned and wincingly effective from an emotional standpoint, didn't provide much closure and left the film feeling unresolved. Having said that, I have a suspicion that this was intentional as stories such as these do not have a cut-off point where the transformation is complete and the only resolution is the acceptance that there is none and that the fight must go on.

Definitely would recommend it.