Cheap Normal (DVD) (Jane Anderson (II)) Price

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Customer Reviews of Normal

What is most touching is how the daughter handles it. She instantly embraces her father. Their grown son is less able to deal with it but the scene between father and son is touching. Its Jessica Lange that steals the show as Irma. Her reactions from anger to mourning are always dead on. Wilkinson is also wonderful as the tortured Roy who can see what he's doing to his family but can't stop himself in his search for personal freedom.

The scenery in this film is amazing and the music fits each scene. I was really impressed by everything about this film and would recommend it to anyone.

5 stars and then some. Normal will stay with you long after the film has ended.

Unusual and worthwhile
Originally made for HBO, this unusual drama follows an Iowa couple whose lives are thrown into turmoil by the husband's revelation that he wants to change his gender. In the central roles of Roy, the husband, and Irma, his at first disbelieving, then supportive wife, Tom Wilkinson and Jessica Lange give superb performances. There is strong work by Hayden Panettiere as their sharp-tongued daughter as well. In a society where people are regularly murdered for trying to break out of their physically assigned gender roles, the relative gentleness with which Roy is treated by the obviously conservative small town where he lives seems a little optimistic. Nevertheless, the performances and an understated, observant script that avoids cliche raise this one above the level of a mere curiosity.

Inaccurate but truthful
Contradictory though it may be, this film is simultaneously inaccurate and truthful.

In presenting the gender transition of a middle-aged man in a small, conservative farming community, this film has an odd omission. As an earlier reviewer pointed out, Roy/Ruth is able to go through hormone therapy and to get Sexual Reassignment Surgery without the film ever showing how. This is more than just a technicality. To get HRT, one needs a prescription. Most endocrinologists who work with TG people work as much on the emotional side of the issues as they do on the physical. To get SRS, one must have letters from two therapists. Roy faces some incredibly difficult issues in this film. He also makes some very dangerous choices, such as wearing perfume and earrings to work before having disclosed his transition. In real life, the therapist would be working with Ruth on all of these things. It almost feels as though a decision was made after shooting to edit out all of the scenes in which Ruth interacts with her doctor and her therapist.

This does have the effect of focusing on the real drama, the evolving relationships within the family. But it makes the film feel somehow unreal and misguided.

Other than that, as several reviewers have mentioned, the acceptance of the community as depicted is extremely optimistic.

For all that, this film nailed it. A couple I know invited me over to watch movies with them one night, and popped this one into the VCR. Halfway into the film, I broke down weeping and had to leave. As a TG woman myself, this film captured the truth of what happens, of the emotions and changes, as accurately as anything I've ever seen. The humanity of this movie, in how it depicts all of the family members, is stunning. There is no sensationalism, no embellishment, just four human beings trying to make sense of and work through a difficult transition.

I went back to see my friends three nights later and watched the rest of the film. I'm glad I did. You will be glad you saw this film too. It's a wonderful story of love.