bballk11-269-111138 Most movies that I have seen that deal with transgender issues seem, to me, to exploit the issues and make fun of them. I like that this movie was more of a splice of life film that happened to be about a transgendered character. Roy is just a normal Midwestern farmer who works hard and loves his wife and daughter. He and his wife are beginning to get on in years, but they seem to have the perfect marriage; until we find them in a church marriage counseling room. (I did think that the couple going to counseling at their church was a good move for this movie as people in such small towns usually don't trust psychologists and want to follow the social standard of having an active church life). Roy then reveals that he has always felt like a woman, he loves his wife and family, but he has always felt wrong, or at least awkward in his own body.Roy and his wife, Irma are begin fighting about the issue in secret, but they keep up all public appearances even within their family as if nothing has changed. Irma is angry and wants to keep herself and their daughter separated from Roy, but two events change that. First, after Roy's father, who knows nothing of what is going on, makes fun of him because he doesn't want to inherit the farm and he was caught dressing as a girl when he was very young; and Roy walks out, a while later, when it is time to go Irma goes looking for him and he is found by her with a gun in his mouth. She gets him to return home and live with her and their daughter again. At this point she knows she cannot have him out of her life. The Second event, was when she is at church, singing in the choir that Roy was kicked out of, and she sees an usher saying something to Roy, who then gets up and leaves with his daughter. She knew if she walked out then, in front of everyone that she was choosing him over everything else, but she did. The small society of a town, everyone she knew, church, everything she put aside because she knew she loved him.This movie also didn't really take advantage of the transgender issues for comic effect, it used some of the real situations that would come up as Roy went through his process to lighten the mood without making fun of SRS. For example the daughters amusement that their her and her father's breasts were the same size.

tub82092 Normal is a drama film, in America which was released in 2003 by HBO Film. The film was written and directed by Jane Anderson. I like the movie because of the acting and the some technical qualities are really outstanding. In the film, Roy is a female who was born in a male body. He tries to face his real gender bravely after gets married with Irma for 25 years. Since he feels some struggle of being a man, he starts wearing woman's clothes, dresses and earrings in order to achieve his satisfaction; however, he is discriminated by everyone.I think this film would satisfied the fans of this genre because it shows some problems that transgender people usually face in the real society. Also, it is not easy to predict the plot and the ending of the film. For example, Roy's wife sometimes encourage Roy to be what he is but sometimes cannot accept the fact and want her "real husband" back. Camera angle is really wonderful. The director uses many "zoom in" effect to lead audience follow emotions more. In the birthday party of Roy's father, the camera move into Roy slowly while he is crying. Not only these days, transgender and transsexual people are usually get discriminated by the public. They also need to take many kinds of medicine which is really unhealthy for them. For example, Roy takes medicine in order to make his breast bigger and fill for his satisfaction.All in all, this is a lovely and touching film. Roy's family accept the fact supportably which represents that they love Roy a lot no matter how he is. Moreover, I think the society should not discriminate these people since they were born in this way.

bkoganbing Tom Wilkinson has been hiding a very big secret from the world. Husband and father, during a marriage counseling visit with his local pastor, he comes out with the fact that inside he feels he was born a woman. That comes as a big shock to his wife of 25 years, Jessica Lange, and their minister, Randall Arney.This revelation is quite a blockbuster for everyone all around. These are blue collar people, not terribly sophisticated and not well read into the world of transgender. Still most try to cope as best they can.Tom Wilkinson and Jessica Lange give a pair of beautifully matched performances in Normal. Wilkinson is a decent man, a good husband and father, a good provider, who can't keep up the pretense any more. He starts to transition into a woman, but stays at home to be the parent to young Hayden Panettiere who is just entering puberty. In fact with the estrogen treatments that Wilkinson is taking is almost like him going through puberty a second time with his own daughter.Lange is the housewife and mother, she does not in fact work, but during the course of the film does take a job for her own income. Her reaction is to castigate Wilkinson, but also to blame herself and in fact her pastor says something like that to her. His only solution is to come up with some scripture from Ephesians that he says covers the situation. Something about emasculating her man.Arney is an interesting character, transgender is not something taught at the seminary. He's trying to figure it out, but can only think and operate from a very narrow framework. Eventually Wilkinson and Lange leave the church, a most gut wrenching experience for both since they are sincere Christians. The key scene in this film is during a family reunion at Thanksgiving when Wilkinson's father, who's suffering from the beginnings of Alzheimer's. There is a deep focus shot of Wilkinson in the foreground as dad, Richard Bull, is talking about how as a kid with five daughters he was worried about having an effeminate son when he caught him trying on his mother's clothes. Bull relates he beat his son to get the effeminacy out of him.. The shot then switches to a closeup of Lange and it's worth more than ten pages of dialog as she now knows this is not either some whim of her husband's nor anything that is her fault. Excellent camera work and acting, especially for a TV movie.Although they are married and stay married, my guess is that at some point Wilkinson and Lange will part amicably. During the film in fact she does begin an affair with her husband's boss, Clancy Brown. My guess is that though she does love Wilkinson very much, Lange will miss the physical intimacy of marriage.Someone did some good research into transgender issues. There is a brief scene with Wilkinson trying to talk in a higher register now that he's transitioning. One thing I've learned from transgender friends is that one's vocal cords are set for life in puberty when one is male. There are vocal techniques to talk lower, but they have to be learned and presumably Wilkinson will learn them. People who are born female will have their vocal cords thicken with the testosterone treatmentThere are very few people that out and out hate the man for transitioning to female. He does get some hate graffiti on his truck and he does get into a fight with one of his co-workers. Mostly they just can't understand. Interesting that Hayden Panettiere reports no problems in school with peers over her dad. It's sometimes the case that the young are the most tolerant indeed.Normal is a sensitive treatment of transgender issues with some fine performances and a good story with no real ending in sight for this family.

Travis_Bickle01 "Normal" tells the story of Roy and Irma, who have been married for 25 years. The marriage has got ups and downs, but after 25 years you would think that they've seen the worst. At least, that's what Irma thought. But then Roy reveals something he had kept secret for quite some years. He doesn't feel comfortable in his own body, he feels like God gave him the wrong body. He wants to be a woman.What follows is the struggle of Irma and Roy, handling this problem. First we got Roy's part, who feels relieved after his confession and happy as well being finally 'out of the closet'. But his colleagues and friends aren't very supportive and understanding. There's the scene where Roy got punched by some of his colleagues after he came to work wearing earrings. I really loved this scene. Not the beating of course but the part where he is walking to the workplace wearing men clothes and still looking like a man, but wearing typical women earrings. It thought it was amazingly brave doing this! I felt sorry for him as well because I knew he would be punched by some of his colleagues for this.On the other hand we have the struggle of Irma, who suddenly has lost her husband after 25 years of marriage. The problem isn't that her husband didn't thread her respectful neither that he was cheating on her. The problem was that her husband who she had loved for more than 25 years, suddenly was becoming a woman. The problem is also that she doesn't have anyone else, she doesn't want anyone else either."Normal" is a magnificent movie handling a very difficult subject: sex change. Both leading actors are brilliant. Tom Wilkinson is extraordinary good. Magnificent performance! Jessica Lange on the other hand is very touching in her role of being the supportive and understanding wife. Being there for her husband, through anything. It's this element of unconditional love and the outstanding acting performances by both leading actors that makes the movie so wonderful. Certainly worth watching! 8/10