Home at Long Last

Reviews the film "Normal". The reviewer maintains that the film simplistically presents the complexities of a transgender existence. The film lacks in exploring the depths of the existential drama. The drama begins with the main character, Roy (Tom Wilkinson), collapsing during the celebration of his 25th wedding anniversary. He blacks out because of the psychological pressure to inform others that he has decided to change his sex after years of marriage to a woman he loves truly and with whom he has two children. Irma, Roy's wife (Jessica Lange), gave transparency of depth and difficulty imposed on a person after a revelation of this caliber. In Irma one sees the struggle and damage that delaying this revelation can bring to significant others. A drama should be promoting identification of the audience with the central character's conflict. But, Irma's struggles are definitely more important to me in this film. The reviewer kept asking: Does a person ever get to know his or her partner intimately enough? Is intimacy about acceptance, forgiveness, and openness for changes commit by two people when they go together dealing with all that conies out of a 25-year conjugal life? Is intimacy a merging of souls or a merging of bodies? This line of inquiry seems to be fruitful for psychologists, philosophers, and teachers to pursue after watching "Normal". Yet, the film only introduces these areas of social conflict. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)