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This is the real-life story of teenager Teena Brandon (Hilary Swank), a youth with a sexual identity crisis who re-identifies herself as a male named Brandon Teena. Arriving in Nebraska, Brandon is one of the boys — he has a girlfriend, drinks with the lads, and gets high. What more could he want from his carefree life? Acceptance, maybe.
Brandon is sensitive, gentle, caring, and charming to all young women who encounter him. But as life continues, Brandon finds himself in jail — in the “girls’ room.” His friends become suspicious when they find girlie items in his room, and his terrible secret starts to come out. Brandon takes extraordinary risks to live the male role and to help his friends understand his situation. But when Brandon’s best friend, John (played by Peter Sarsgaard), discovers Brandon’s secret, he and his buddy, Tom Nissen (Brendan Sexton) betray, humiliate, rape, and eventually murder Brandon.
I had a few mixed reactions to this film. Yes, there were a few tears on my behalf, because I can’t stand pain in films. I’ve known about this film for quite a while and have been looking forward to watching it for some time. Imagine my excitement when I browsed the paper and realised it was on TV. The performance from Hilary Swank as Brandon was astounding. She has been praised for her role in this film — and rightly so. It wasn’t the easiest of roles to take on. Playing a woman playing a man is one thing. But having to be a woman, playing a woman playing a man must have taken hard work and courage. Another outstanding performance was from Chloe Sevigny, who portrayed Lana Tisdel, Brandon’s girlfriend. Having to be cast in a role with so many explicit sexual scenes with another woman takes a truly talented actress to pull it off and make it look realistic. I have nothing but the highest of praise for both actresses.
Director Kimberly Peirce spent five years researching this film — but she should have spent another five on the picture quality. It was awful. Setting the film in a realistically trashy location made the film less than what it should have been. So my final verdict with this film is: definitely hire it out and watch it — it’s worth your time. Just be warned that the picture quality isn’t all it should be.
