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Huffman is brave, funny, foolish, touching in 'Transamerica'

In "Transamerica," Felicity Huffman out-Victor/Victorias Julie Andrews in "Victor/Victoria."

Whereas Andrews played a woman pretending to be a man who was a female impersonator, Huffman plays a man who is in the process of becoming a woman (a woman playing a man who is, on the inside, a woman). Got that?

The Weinstein Company 'Transamerica' B+ The verdict: Huffman gives a transcendent performance. Director: Duncan Tucker Starring: Felicity Huffman, Kevin Zegers, Fionnula Flanagan, Graham Greene, Elizabeth Pena Run time: 103 minutes Release date: Dec. 23, 2005 Rating: R for sexual content, nudity, language and drug use. See showtimes On the web Official movie site View the trailer    Trailers require Quicktime [an error occurred while processing this directive]

Fans may have trouble recognizing "Desperate Housewives'" Lynette Scavo as desperate transgendered person Bree Osbourne, who can't wait for surgical gender reassignment. (She is so convincing, one of my early notes read, "actor oddly resembles Felicity Huffman.")

Bree (as in Sabrina, formerly Stanley) is only a week away from the final cut, so to speak, when she learns she fathered a son, Toby (Kevin Zegers), while she was still Stanley. A son who's now in juvie and needs bailing out.

Her supportive but strict shrink (Elizabeth Pena) — whose approval is needed for the operation — is constantly reminding Bree there are parts of herself she can't cut out (for starters, she must stop referring to Stanley in the third person). When the therapist hears about Toby, she insists Bree deal with him before the operation can take place.

So, posing as a church do-gooder, Bree goes to New York and picks up her boy, a sullen Johnny Depp type, circa "Cry-Baby." Setting off for L.A., they embark on an oddball odyssey that recalls a '70s on-the-road buddy flick in both its scruffy sense of humor and its off-kilter soulfulness.

Huffman, who won the best dramatic actress Golden Globe on Monday and is already being touted for an Oscar nomination, transcends the stunt aspect of the character. She shows us someone who's brave, funny, foolish, touching and, most of all, a survivor. Part prim librarian, part Tennessee Williams heroine, Bree lives in a dream world built on bruised fantasies, romantic yearnings and personal pain. Every night, before going to sleep, she confronts herself in the mirror and says, "Good night, Pretty. Sleep tight, Pretty."

Yet despite the provocative premise, "Transamerica" is actually a rather old-fashioned film, no more threatening in its way than, well, "Victor/Victoria." There's even a possibility of a post-op romance with a kind-hearted Native American played by Graham Greene.

"Transamerica" is about transformation. Not simply Bree's gender transition, but also her relationship with Toby. Initially, she's like a cuckoo, all too ready to deposit her child in someone else's nest. And he's a pouty, self-centered street brat who likes to upset Bree by calling her "Dude." But a bond slowly grows. As it turns out, along with her penchant for bright pink nail polish, Bree has a maternal instinct, too.

And a sense of humor about herself. Before anyone knows about Toby, the therapist asks her if she ever dated a woman when she was Stanley. Bree replies, "There was this one time in college, but the whole thing was so absurdly lesbian, I thought it didn't count."

The movie has its problems. A side trip to Bree's disapproving family, though somewhat amusing, comes off as filler (and an unwelcome return to the screen by Burt Young). Further, the cultural observations get a little tedious, as does the "noble queen" self-pitying poignancy; at times, the picture can edge a bit too close to "To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar" territory.

But Bree's sense of her true gender identity isn't just the stuff of camp. "We're not gender-challenged," she notes. "We're gender-gifted."

So is "Transamerica."