Without knowing the precise details of the actual events that this film is based on, it's difficult to say how faithful it stays to them. If it were fiction I'd have been inclined to critisise it for stereotyping a transgender woman as a nightclub performer, as it is, this part seems to be accurate.
Performances are generally strong, particularly Shawn Hatosy as the dangerously unhinged Justin Fisher. Lee Pace is very good as Calpernia Addams, but I don't see why the part couldn't have been played by a woman, trans or otherwise.
There are a couple of jarring scenes where Winchell and Addams are discussing her military background almost with an attitude of comraderie, and also some uncomfortable (for a non American) reflections on the US military. I also find offensive a notion that the film more than hints at several times (and which is made explicit in the DVD extras) that Winchell was somehow experimenting with his sexuality. If he loved Addams as a woman, this is a non-issue, but the film makers and actors (and Winchell's mother in the extras) don't seem to be able to understand that.
That aside, it's still a good film, and the subject matter is treated as well as we might expect for this point in time.
Performances are generally strong, particularly Shawn Hatosy as the dangerously unhinged Justin Fisher. Lee Pace is very good as Calpernia Addams, but I don't see why the part couldn't have been played by a woman, trans or otherwise.
There are a couple of jarring scenes where Winchell and Addams are discussing her military background almost with an attitude of comraderie, and also some uncomfortable (for a non American) reflections on the US military. I also find offensive a notion that the film more than hints at several times (and which is made explicit in the DVD extras) that Winchell was somehow experimenting with his sexuality. If he loved Addams as a woman, this is a non-issue, but the film makers and actors (and Winchell's mother in the extras) don't seem to be able to understand that.
That aside, it's still a good film, and the subject matter is treated as well as we might expect for this point in time.
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