If this road movie proves anything, it's that the true talent in Channel 4's Desperate Housewives is Felicity Huffman (aka the dowdy one nobody fancies).
How she should be gloating over her bimbo TV co-stars now she's bagged a Golden Globe and an Oscar for a 'worthy' piece of acting. Even in Grayson Perry-worthy slap, she's fantastic as Bree, a pre-op male-to-female transsexual who takes an unforeseen journey after discovering she fathered a juvenile delinquent son, Toby.
Travelling across the US with the conniving, lowlife shit (Smallville's Kevin Zegers), the freaked-out woman struggles to get to know the teen without revealing either her relationship to him, or the fact she's still got a penis.
There's some hilariously acerbic dialogue between the antagonistic duo as they bitch at each other's idiosyncrasies, a situation that intensifies when Toby catches a disturbing flash of Bree pissing, cock in hand. "You're cutting your dick off for Jesus?" he exclaims at one point, going on to unwittingly suggest incest when he suddenly decides he finds this frumpy shemale pretty damned hot.
Debut writer/director Duncan Tucker explores gender issues in a blackly amusing, though never patronising way. Greater emotional intensity and fewer wisecracks would have made a more resonant tale, but for a leftfield comedy this is an unexpected pleasure.
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