Boys Don't Cry is based on a true story, but it doesn't seem real. This is partly because Swank is not that convincing as a male, no matter how often she smiles awkwardly. Her skin tone, her physique, her shyness, and her ingratiating intimacy all mark her as a woman.
From an emotional standpoint, men and women are not as different as our culture pretends. However, Swank is not playing a man, but a woman who desperately wants to be a man. She won the Best Actress Oscar for her role, more than her performance. The Academy Awards has a history of rewarding such roles dating back at least to 1983, when Dustin Hoffman (Tootsie) and Julie Andrews (Victor/Victoria) were both nominated.
Chloe Sevigny (also Oscar-nominated) out-acts Swank in the same movie. While Swank has a challenging role, is it any more difficult than that of Sarsgaard, who has to be credible as an angry and impulsive rapist and murderer? Is a normal man any closer to being a dangerous psychopath, than a normal woman is to being butch?
It also has to remembered that Brandon was a criminal, and probably not nearly as sympathetic in real life as she is portrayed as in the film. No one deserves her fate, but she was not the only victim. A young man was also murdered that same night, but his character was dropped to emphasize Brandon's story.
What is the message of Boys Don't Cry? That cross dressers are people too? That a straight woman will swing both ways when she finally finds someone who is nice to her? That Nebraska is the hate crimes capital of the world? That men become violent jerks when they lose girlfriends to transvestites?
It is an interesting if unpleasant story, but its focus is too narrow. Instead of exploring the character of Brandon, we are made to feel sorry for her. We are given voyeuristic images of her sex life, and we feel her pain as her new life unravels along with her deceptions. She becomes a victim of an intolerant, male-dominated society; a lonely, needing, lost soul on a sea of gender confusion. This is only part of the Brandon story, and it is too convenient to brush off her darker side.
Except for Lonny (Matt McGrath), who understands if not fully accepts Brandon, men do not come off well in this film. Not just John and Tom are jerks, but so is the insensitive police interrogator. Not to mention the barroom brawler. Women, are other hand, are depicted as saints: the nurse at the hospital is gentle, Lana and Candace are sympathetic and accept Brandon as she is. Candance selflessly begs for her child to be saved. Only Lana's mother (Jeannetta Arnette) has any spice, although her character is a hard-drinking white trash stereotype.
The first feature film for director/writer Kimberly Peirce and screenwriter Andy Bienen, Boys Don't Cry became the socially conscious film of 1999. Perhaps they'll next tackle the dragging death of James Byrd Jr. in Jasper, Texas, and critics will no doubt be expected to salute the 'groundbreaking' efforts of that film as well. (48/100)
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