DIFFERENT FOR GIRLS
A Film Review by James Berardinelli
RATING (0 TO 10): 7.0 Alternative Scale: *** out of ****
United Kingdom, 1996 U.S. Release Date: beginning 9/12/97 (limited) Running Length: 1:41 MPAA Classification: R (Profanity, nudity, sex) Theatrical Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Cast: Steven Mackintosh, Rupert Graves, Miriam Margolyes, Saskia Reeves Director: Richard Spence Producer: John Chapman Screenplay: Tony Marchant Cinematography: Sean van Hales Music: Stephen Warbeck U.S. Distributor: First Look Pictures
With DIFFERENT FOR GIRLS, director Richard Spence and writer Tony Marchant have discovered a crop that hasn't been picked over in the field of screen romances. This isn't just a boy-falls-for-girl story, it's boy-falls-for-girl-who-used-to-be-a-boy story. And, while this premise is easy fodder for a farce, Spence plays it relatively straight, giving us a surprisingly sensitive look at the life of someone who has undergone a sex-change operation. Of course, that's not to say that the director ignores the potential for comedy in the situation. In fact, Spence keeps things from becoming too heavy by leavening the drama with humor.
One of the reasons why DIFFERENT FOR GIRLS works is because of the caliber of acting. Steven Mackintosh plays Kim (whose name used to be Karl) with a kind of wistful sadness. We get the sense that the operation wasn't something she wanted, but that she needed it to properly define herself. She felt uncomfortable in a man's body, but, by becoming a woman, she has been forced to live with the stigma that society places upon those who change genders. Unlike in fantasies, Kim isn't a beautiful, petite woman, but someone whose features are still unmistakably masculine. Mackintosh's studied performance realizes all of the complexities of Kim's situation and brings them to the screen with subtlety and intelligence.
Playing opposite Mackintosh is Rupert Graves (who can currently be seen in INTIMATE RELATIONS). While Kim is reserved and business-like in her approach to life, Graves' Prentice is an angry, rowdy man in a state of arrested adolescence who is in constant danger of losing his delivery job because of his rudeness to customers. Graves' performance is uninhibited and electric, and his Prentice provides the perfect foil for Kim -- they're oil and water. What's more, Prentice isn't a mental giant, so, rather than attempting to intellectualize and analyze his feelings for Kim, he reacts impulsively and not always intelligently.
The two meet as the result of a traffic accident, and Prentice immediately thinks he recognizes Kim. It doesn't take him long to place her -- they had been friends at school together over a decade and a half ago, when Kim was still Karl. More out of curiosity than anything else, Prentice agrees to meet Kim for a drink, but his boorish behavior causes the reunion to turn ugly, and he and Kim part on bad terms. She's determined never to see him again until, the next day at work, he delivers a bouquet of flowers accompanied by a very apologetic note.
In exploring the deepening relationship between the two leads, DIFFERENT FOR GIRLS deals with all the subjects we would expect -- sexual confusion, homosexuality, and how society in general reacts to this odd couple. Prentice doesn't know what to make of his feelings for Kim. When he protests their growing closeness by saying "I'm straight," Kim's response is a simple "So am I." The situation is exacerbated when the cops arrest them for disorderly conduct and mistake them for a gay couple. Additionally, Prentice is understandably interested in the specifics of Kim's gender change -- why she did it, how it was performed, and what the results look like. Through dialogue and a revealing scene featuring full frontal nudity (Mackintosh's breasts aren't real, but it's impossible to tell that), DIFFERENT FOR GIRLS satisfies Paul's (and our) curiosity about the matter.
The film has its weak points. The convoluted ending wraps things up a little too neatly for my taste, although it does create a sense of closure. Also, a subplot involving the marital struggles of Kim's sister (Saskia Reeves) and her husband is more intrusive than enlightening. The best parts of the film are those when the focus is squarely upon Prentice and Kim as they try to work through their difficulties, and as Prentice learns to accept Kim for what she is today rather than what she was seventeen years ago. In its own way, DIFFERENT FOR GIRLS asks many of the same questions about gender and sexuality as Frank Oz' IN AND OUT, and, unsurprisingly, the answers are the same.
Copyright 1997 James Berardinelli
- James Berardinelli e-mail: berardin@mail.cybernex.net
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- Jean-Luc Godard
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