Tomboy (2011)

A family moves into a new neighborhood. The parents have a 10 year old and a younger daughter. Lisa befriends the 10 year old and asks for his name. He reveals it's Mikhael. He makes new friends. He gets into a fight and his secret is discovered by his mother. He's actually a girl named Laure. The mother forces Laure to wear a dress and apologize.There's got to be a better way to reveal Laure's sex other than having her stand there naked. It's too deliberate as a visual. The story may even work better if we know she's a girl from the start. The audience can follow her journey more naturally. There is also the last act. There is good tension after Laure's exposure but it seems like the movie is holding back its final punch. That might account for the movie's short length. It's heart-breaking to see Laure struggling for her identity. I don't know if the actress could perform it but she could have put it over the top with a real intense breakdown.

This film was touching in many aspects. Laure wanted to be someone she wasn't, and she was accidentally given the opportunity to do so thanks to Lisa talking to her as if she were a boy upon their initial encounter. She crafts a male alter ego, Mikaël, and eventually builds on it, having what resembled a love affair with Lisa under her alter ego. I had a feeling that the truth about "Mikaël" would come out sooner or later, but the way in which it came out (and its aftermath) in the film was quite harsh, IMO. I think the humiliation that Laure endured could have been reduced if Laure's mother had simply accompanied Laure to a gathering of all the kids she had played with and then announced Mikaël's true gender/identity to them at the gathering and then continuing to watch over them. Also, the ending seems rather abrupt. It makes me wonder what Lisa's intentions were - did she simply want to find out Mikaël's true identity, or did she want to build a new relationship with Laure as her true feminine self? Since Lisa had mentioned earlier that "Mikaël" did not exist on the class lists, I would have had her continue by saying something along the lines of "Oh, so you are indeed in my class. See you in class then!"

This movie is very hard to find. It's almost non-existent. I came across it at a video store by accident. If you like to see films where the Director legitimately cared about what was being created then this by all means is one that is not to be missed. It isn't for everyone, I don't recommend it to the airheaded Battleship crowd, I definitely do recommend it to people who appreciate movies with heart and soul.The story involves a new kid in town that, during summer vacation, tells all of her new friends she's a boy but the lie can't continue forever. School will eventually begin and the truth will have to emerge. Unfortunately she has exposed herself as Michael to a girl that has developed a big crush on "him".The acting in this very small film is so precise that it could be used as a tool in college drama classes and I'm not only referring to the sensational lead actress (who delivers an Oscar caliber performance) but every other performer as well. I could rattle on for hours about this. A standout, in particular, is the actress playing her younger sister, she's remarkable. It's a triumph to see these two extremely young actresses trying to out-act each other when they're sharing screen time. The girl who plays Michael's admirer, the mother, the father, all the neighborhood kids, are all note perfect.The lead is thoroughly convincing as a boy in both looks and persona as well as being quite brave in regards to fighting. Close to the end we see something that appears to be completely wrong when the mother forces her tomboy daughter to wear a dress and tell everyone the truth, especially her admirer. There is very little dialogue but the message is crystal clear.I never seen the lead actress in anything else and all through the film including the ending when she is wearing a dress she simply looked like a boy and a boy wearing a dress. Afterwards I looked at her profile on this site and seen a beautiful girl. When someone drowns themselves that deep in character that is rather stunning.A quiet, sweet and rewarding show.

When ten-year-old Laure moves to a Parisian suburb with her parents and younger sister, Jeanne, it is a difficult transition with a new neighbourhood to make home, new friends to find and a new school with which to contend. Although her parents clearly love her and Jeanne looks up to her as the ultimate big sister, Laure has issues of her own that isolate her from the world. Laure resists the stereotyping foisted upon young French girls and is content to run free in shorts and t-shirt as a tomboy and her parents seem at ease with her choice.However, when she makes her first foray into friendship with a group of children who will soon be her peers at school, she introduces herself as Mickäel and they happily accept that she is a boy. Welcomed as part of the group of boys who swim and play football, Mickäel also forms a bond of friendship with Lisa (Jeanne Disson), a 'regular' girl, who sees in him a gentleness and sensitivity that is absent in the boys with whom she, too, has kicked around.While never actually stated, the probability of Laure/Mickäel being (unnoticed, undiagnosed or just ignored) transgender is evident but writer/director Céline Sciamma prefers to take the gentler approach of studying social norms of gender types rather than a no-holds-barred sexual exploration.Tomboy is a beautifully subtle film that is dialogue-light but filled with the language of silence and unarticulated glances. The three young principals are confident and natural in their performances and Sciamma appears content to sit back and let them play their parts fluidly and without strict direction. The relationship between Laure/Mickäel and Jeanne is particularly sensitively handled with the role of big sister meandering between the two according to circumstances.There is little input from the parents, and they are credited simply as La mere and La père, but when the girls' mother steps into the scene her impact is immediate and stirs both judgment and understanding in the viewer.While Tomboy suggests questions that could be asked, it stops short of dictating the answers and, instead, makes a suggestion that we may accept or condemn and, though some may find the subject matter uncomfortable, one hopes those very few who are attracted to this lovely film are not of the camp given to prejudice and fear-inspired anger.Tomboy is a gentle film that deserves to be watched quietly and savoured in the company of gentle people.