Different for Girls

What a brave and unusual romantic comedy. Thank God the BBC is still open-minded enough for such projects, which are not only important, but ultimately wonderfully entertaining.

At the core of the boy-meets-girl, who used to be one of his mates at school, now transsexual, love story is Steven Mackintosh, who portrays Karl-now-Kim with such dignity and style that this film never feels sticky or cumbersome, as one might fear going into it.

Rupert Graves plays the bad-boy "Prentice" with such charm that one thoroughly understands why Kim allows her new-found, quiet life to be turned upside down. He shows Kim that finding the right gender doesn't necessarily make you a whole person...That comes from conviction and caring. It requires passion - something he's full of and is able to rekindle in his old schoolmate. And who knows...maybe she'll get him to change his socks daily!

Thoroughly charming!

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!!!

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.

In the opening scene of Different for Girls, Karl's boarding-school classmates are tormenting him for his effeminate nature. To his rescue comes friend and protector, Paul. Roll the opening credits, and flash to the next scene, 16 years in the future. It's the scene of a minor traffic accident and two of the individuals involved appear familiar to one another, but something is amiss. Paul, now a punkish motorcycle courier is one, but the other is demure, stylish, female.... its Karl. Paul and Karl (now Kim thanks to sex-change surgery) finally recognize one another and begin a relationship that slowly evolves to romance. The movie essentially chronicles the emotional journey of this odd-couple; and it's done with the proper mix of humor and drama. Well worth the rental.

Aside from any psycho-analytical considerations (in which I have no competence), this film really worked for me. I typically give a wide berth to pictures of this ilk, but I was really captivated by the sense that these characters were really living the circumstances in which they found themselves. I'm not going to blather on about how relevant blah blah, but the fact is that Nobody is immune from the possibility that an experience like this might present itself in real life, and it is thought-provoking to reflect on how it might affect ME. This is a complex subject, uncomfortable to many, but explored here in a way that was good sociology, good psychology, and damned fine cinema. Whatever your hang-ups are (or aren't), enjoy this film.