On Film4 tonight at 9pm
Transsexual Bree discovers she has a 17-year-old son and embarks on an eventful cross-country trip with him without revealing that she is his father. Oscar nominated for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role, Felicity Huffman is outstanding in this movie being a woman playing a man on the road to becoming a woman.
The film was nominated for two Academy Awards and won numerous additional trophies, including a Golden Globe for Huffman. Its presence at the 78th Academy Awards, together with Brokeback Mountain and Capote, saw certain narrow-minded groups protesting against the depictions of gay and transsexual individuals in mainstream Hollywood movies. Fortunately, these ignorant troublemakers weren’t sizable enough to have an impact and their viciousness was counteracted somewhat by the fact that a handful of stars from the notoriously right-wing world of country music stepped forward to apply their talents to two of these films. Willie Nelson, Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris all featured on the Brokeback Mountain soundtrack while Dolly Parton wrote Travelin’ Thru for Transamerica and was nominated for Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Song in the Academy Awards.
Dolly lost out to It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp from Hustle & Flow, but I’m sure she didn’t mind. She’s already got over 150 major awards under her belt. Actually that’s far too many to fit under a belt and might explain why she’s so well endowed in other areas.
