You’re 50 years old give or take, have a beautiful wife you’ve been married to for 25 years, two reasonably sane children, a job with your buddies building large farm vehicles and live in the Midwest. So what do you do for a change of pace? If you’re Roy in the HBO original film Normal, you announce to the world that you’ve known all your life you’re a woman in a man’s body. And no matter what, you’re finally going to fix that. Tom Wilkinson, so terrific in last year’s In the Bedroom, absolutely submerges himself in the struggle.
Jane Anderson has written and directed a compelling movie about a most unusual sequence of events. How should the people around Roy really react, especially given that this is taking place in a small rural community and not some urbane metropolis? His boss likes him and works to understand and keep him on the job. The pastor of their church attempts to be understanding and provide helpful counseling, though in the end the pastor is unable to reconcile himself to it. The daughter (played by Hayden Panettiere), uncomfortable with her own burgeoning femininity, is curious and accepting.
Jessica Lange plays Roy’s wife Irma and this is a role that could lead a lesser actress to simply chew up the scenery. Lange is far too good for that, though, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see her get an Emmy nomination later this year. Doesn’t hurt at all that at age 53 Lange is just as beautiful as she was 20 years ago in Tootsie. She takes Irma through the entire emotional cycle, finally realizing that she loves Roy too deeply to give that up when Roy becomes Ruth.
I thought Wilkinson was overlooked in all the praise given to Sissy Spacek over In the Bedroom and he turns in an even better performance in a much meatier role. His transformation over the course of the film is so subtle from moment to moment that you watch the last few scenes, particularly where he says goodbye to his dying father and then when he fights with his disbelieving son, and wonder when he became a woman. Just outstanding.
Definitely recommended, another winner for HBO Films.
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