PRODIGAL SONS- This thought-provoking documentary is all about identity and choices: Who we choose to be as individuals, how we choose to live our lives, who we choose to love, and how we deal with situations in which it seems we have no choice. Paul McKerrow grew up the golden child of a loving family in small town Montana, the middle of three sons born 3 years apart. Handsome, smart and strong, he graduated as class President and valedictorian, captain of the football team, and the object of every cheerleader’s affection. Twenty years later, Paul is now Kimberly Reed, a transgendered film director returning to her hometown for the first time for a high school reunion. The trip also marks her reunion with adopted older brother Marc, who has had a hard-knock life: held back in preschool, failed to graduate high school, suffered a serious head injury at age 21, and has never gotten over the feeling that he’s been cheated out of the life he deserves. The film pulls a rope-a-dope sucker punch, feigning the audience into believing the drama will come from the community’s lack of acceptance of Kimberly’s transition, when in fact the emotional dynamics largely come from Marc’s mental breakdown. What begins as an almost endearing social awkwardness quickly turns vicious and ugly, as Marc hurls insults at Kimberly and her girlfriend, physically assaults their younger brother (who is gay), and eventually pulls a knife during a holiday celebration. He’s a train wreck of a man desperate to control his own life, but he clearly can’t even control his own emotional impulses despite an obvious love for his family. It’s a fascinating, heartbreaking portrait of familial dysfunction and mental illness, more complex and profoundly revelatory than anything most Hollywood screenwriters could dare to dream up. Sometimes, truth really is stranger—and more intriguing– than fiction. (A)
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