Boy meets girl

Boy meets girl ... who used to be a boy

Different for Girls
Directed by Richard Spence
Starring Rupert Graves and Steven Macintosh
Screening at the Luna Cinema in Perth and selected cinemas nationwide

Review by Corrine Glenn

This is a tale of boy meets girl, but with a twist.

Prentis re-meets Kym after 16 years, when Kym's maniac taxi driver crashes into Prentis' motorbike. They recognise each other — except that last time they met, Kym was Carl, the queer who got picked on at school. Tough kid Prentis was there to stick up for him, even though that made Prentis a target as well.

Prentis is a rebel without a cause, but with a heart of gold. He is a dispatch rider always on the verge of getting his bike repossessed and is constantly behind in the rent for his grubby flat. Kym writes verses for a greeting card company and lives in a flashy apartment in a nice area.

This film doesn't pretend that life or love are easy for a post-operative transsexual. Prentis has a hard time dealing with the fact that he is attracted to a woman who used to be his best school mate and initially runs away.

Kym is the target of office gossip and police harassment when Prentis gets arrested. The issues are explored with sensitivity and plenty of humour, not shied away from.

In this film worlds collide. Bad boy on a motorbike meets a poet with a love of cashmere cardigans; working class meets upper middle class; a lad who likes nothing better than a pint of lager meets a woman with great taste in wine. However, from the start, you know that the two are just meant to be.

As the promotional material for Different for Girls says: "You can change your mind. You can change your sex. But it won't change a thing."

From GLW issue 289