Critique: Film> Reviews.

Hilary Swank plays Teena Brandon, a 21-year-old from Lincoln, Nebraska, who lives under the alias Brandon Teena, believing that she is a man trapped in a woman's body. In a bid to feel accepted by her group of friends, she cuts her hair short, flattens her chest with tension bandages and puts socks down the front of her pants to look more masculine. She hopes one day to fall and love with a woman, declare her secret, and be understood.

Boys Don't Cry is a bleak and emotional tale concerned with the subject of sexual identity. Brandon is a character that feels the need to dress like a man to match the inner self. To "him", he is not living a lie, despite having to disguise his physical appearance with various attire; it's society, on the whole, that has the problem accepting he is different from the norm. The gender distinctions are deliberately blurred in Boys, with love being viewed as the uniting factor.

Swank's performance is ultimately effective as it initiates a huge sense of sympathy for Brandon. Not only does the actor do a nice job at establishing a male experience, but is very convincing at portraying the male alter-ego; you begin to see why Brandon's friends aren't suspicious of his secret identity, at first. Chloe Sevigny's performance as Lana Tisdel, the sensitive love interest, is just as instrumental in securing some meaning in Brandon's empty world -- the film reaches its heights when the two characters are alone, developing their own, private atmosphere.

Many films have boasted that their stories are true, but Boys feels like a real life drama right from the beginning -- and that's because it is. The film revisits the true events of Brandon's life: all the character names are true to their source, and despite the real Lana Tisdel suing the film's producers for depicting her as "lazy, white trash and a skanky snake", everything feels authentic (watch The Brandon Teena Story if you want to do some research).

I knew nothing about 20-year-old transman Teena Brandon prior to watching the film, but the story is so devastatingly powerful that it is enough to leave even those that know the fate of the character shocked and depressed. The film is ironic as it does make the male gender cry (I'm not ashamed to admit). And even if you attempt to hold back those tears, whether male or female, you'll at least be thinking about the socially constructed ideas about the behaviour, actions, and roles that your particular sex is expected to perform. The film challenges our social norms.

Kimberly Peirce, who directed this movie, paces the story brilliantly. It may feel like a slow starter, but as Brandon begins interacting with his new group of friends, we quickly begin to feel absorbed by the world of the characters. So absorbed, in fact, that I jumped at the most alarming point in the movie.

Boys Don't Cry is a disturbing portrayal of bigotry in our world; one which will infuriate you, disgust you and depress you. It's not supposed to be pretty; the whole point of it, as Swank puts it, is "having the courage to be yourself". So do some soul searching and watch it.

(C) Andy Carrington, 2009.