Different For Girls

A Review
by Angela Gardner

Different For Girls is one of those good news/bad news pictures. The good news is it deals with a transgender theme and focuses on a transgendered character. That character is played by a male actor. More good news is the fact that he does a better than reasonable job portraying a transsexual woman, even in the nude scene. (Yes, there's a nude scene. More on that later.)

The bad news is the transgendered character is played by a male actor. Sounds contradictory, don't it? Well, it depends which segment of the TG community you ask.

Crossdressers are going to fall in love with heroine Kim Foyle. They will be banging down the Makeup Designer's (Fae Hammond) door to get her to do for them what she did for leading lady Steven Mackintosh--real looking fake breasts and vagina. (Please girls, leave her alone. The Lighting and Photography Directors had a lot to do with that illusion, too.)

Transsexuals will find it upsetting that a transsexual woman did not get the part. Never mind that Dustin Hoffman wasn't autistic when he starred in Rainman and the majority of actors who have portrayed King Lear in productions of that play haven't actually been kings, there will be those who moan that Kim should have been played by a transsexual woman. Remember kids, the reason we have actors is for their ability to make us believe in the role and care about the character.

Steven Mackintosh's body language, speech and attitude were consistent with what I have seen in the transgendered community. He made me believe he was Kim Foyle. The film had a way to go to convince me I should care about her.

If you know what a transsexual is and what they may have had to endure while growing up, finding themselves and learning to fit into society in the gender they identify with... then you can see why Kim is the way she is. If you don't know anything about it she comes across as not a very likable person.

A couple of flashback scenes showing her as a boy (Karl) in school enduring the harassment of his schoolmates were all the indication we have of what she went through. (The scene, in a school shower, evoked memories of harassment I went though... and they didn't even know I was transgendered, just different.) When we meet Kim she is living in a pleasant home and is doing well in a job at a greeting card company in London. She seems rather dour and humorless as she attempts to blend in and not draw any attention to herself. We don't even see her smile for a majority of the picture. It is easy to see her as a reinforcement of the depressed TS stereotype.

Her old (and possibly only) friend from school, Paul Prentice, literally flies back into her life when his motorcycle collides with her cab. Somehow after 17 years they manage to recognize each other and she reluctantly agrees to meet him for dinner.

Prentice is the polar opposite of Kim. He is a rebel without a clue and, as the British would say, a bit of a wanker. He has a major problem following rules. Although handsome, and fun at a punk club, he's not that likable either. Give him two choices in any situation and he'll take the wrong one. Their first date ends in disaster and yet somehow they end up seeing each other again.

Prentice was always Karl's protector in school and in one of the flashbacks a boy accuses him of dating Karl. It seems we are supposed to feel that Prentice and Karl were attracted to each other back in the old days--Prentice falling for the female in Karl and Karl seeing Prentice as a knight in shining armor.This could have used more exposition. What we get instead is Prentice wrestling with the "am I gay cause I'm attracted to a TS" question and Kim wondering why he has to be such a moron.

Plot device follows plot device and eventually it all leads to the nude scene I mentioned before. Prentice asks Kim if he can see the results of her struggle and she disrobes before him. It is an awkward moment. Crossdressers will say, "My God, how did they make his body look like that!" and transsexuals will say, "Oh come on, she's not a pork chop on display for approval." Unfortunately that's the way it plays. Kim must submit to Prentice's examination before he can take her to bed for the love scene.

If their relationship had evolved more, if the climatic moment had been a gentle touch on Kim's cheek delivered by a Prentice who cared for her for who she was, the film would have been more effective. As it is we have two characters who don't take the time to make us like them as they rush from one plot device to the next.

The subplot about Kim's sister and husband could have been left out to provide more depth to the main characters. It deals with the same identity and communication issues that the main characters must resolve but it takes time that could have been used for Kim and Paul.

Despite all that I recommend that you see Different For Girls. Steven Mackintosh's performance and his makeup design make it worthwhile. An appearance by old punk rocker Ian Dury (as a repo man) is a casting treat, the soundtrack will get old punks bouncing up and down, and the city of London looks great. Don't expect a breakthrough for transgendered issues. They tried. They hired transsexual actress and cabaret artist Adele Anderson as a consultant. Mackintosh met with transsexuals and had several sessions with a voice therapist to prepare for the role. Director Richard Spence said, "Strange though it is, Prentice and Kim's relationship is successful because they like and respect one another. They get along and, at heart, they think the same, which seems to me to be the basis for most good relationships." Sadly the film doesn't spend enough time showing us the liking and respecting part. Maybe, in that, it just mirrors life, which often seems to spend too much time and effort on the sound and fury and less on the things that should really matter.

It's set for release on September 12. See it then or look for it on video. As Just Like A Woman was a tentative film step in the right direction for crossdressers, Different For Girls places a first pump on the path for transsexuals.