Boys Don't Cry

3.5/4

Starring: Hilary Swank, Chloe Sevigny, Peter Sarsgaard, Brandon Sexton III, Alicia Goranson

Rated R for Violence including an Intense Brutal Rape Scene, Sexuality, Language and Drug Use

Watching "Boys Don't Cry" is like watching an impending train wreck.  You know what's going to happen but you're powerless to stop it.  Yet, no matte how punishing and horrible the images are, you can't turn away.  It's an unfortunate part of human nature, but that's the effect that watching "Boys Don't Cry" has on the viewer.  This is a tough movie to watch, but for those who are willing to witness this story, their time will be well rewarded.

Teena Brandon (Swank) is a young woman from Lincoln, Nebraska, who, as we learn, feels that she is a man.  She gets her cousin Lonny (Matt McGrath) to give her a boyish haircut.  She stuffs a sock down her pants and goes to a roller rink for a date.  Now Brandon Teena, she appears to be a man.  Brandon's first attempt ends badly, but then he meets Candace (Goranson).  After defending her in a fight, he makes fast friends with Candace and her friends, John Lotter (Sarsgaard) and Tom Nissen (Sexton III).  In no short order, he ends up in Falls City, sleeping on his new friends' couches in lieu of working to get his own apartment.  It is there that he meets Lana Tisdel (Sevigny), a sensitive young woman who falls for Brandon, and he for her.  But it isn't long before his secret is out, and the result leads to his brutal rape and murder.

Before she was cast as Brandon, Hilary Swank was best known for playing Julie Pierce in "The Next Karate Kid."  But it's impossible to imagine that the long haired girl who starred alongside Mr. Miyagi is the actress playing Brandon Teena.  Except for a few momentary instances when her makeup gives it away, Swank is absolutely convincing as Brandon.  He's naiive and not blessed with incredible intelligence, but he's by and large a sympathetic character.  We feel his ecstasy at being accepted as a man, but when things turn sour, we  pray that he'll escape even though we know it was not to be.  For once, the Academy gave the Oscar to the person who truly deserved it.  This is the performance of a lifetime.  Swank, a talented actress when she really puts in the work, has done solid work since then, but she's never equaled this performance, and it's unlikely that she or anyone ever will.

Her co-star, Chloe Sevigny, is also in top form.  A gifted actress who has stayed in the independent film realm for the most part, Sevigny is excellent as Lana.  She's sensitive and vulnerable, but also tough.  Sevigny's skill lies in the low-key realism.  Sevigny was honored with an Oscar nomination as well, but she lost to Angelina Jolie for "Girl, Interrupted."  Her performance her is pitch-perfect, and she has amazing chemistry with Swank.

The supporting cast is also very strong.  Peter Sarsgaard is alternately friendly and vicious as John Lotter.  An ex-con who has no impulse control, Lotter is likable and charismatic, but there's always a hint of danger whenever he's around (I'm not sure if this is because we know what he eventually does, but it doesn't matter).  Brandon Sexton III is quite good as Lotter's gopher, Tom Nissen.  Tom is also a person to be wary of, but John is the live wire.  The girls, Alicia Goranson and Allison Foland, are also good.  It should be noted that Goranson, Foland and Sevigny also auditioned for the role of Brandon.  Character actress Jeannetta Arnette is quite good as well as Lana' alcoholic mother.

Kimberly Pierce, in her directorial debut, is careful to take her time in establishing the setting.  Falls City, Nebraska is in large part fueled by alcohol.  People drink in nearly every scene, and from what I gathered from the film, people work to make money so they can drink more.  This is a dreary, rundown place with nothing to do, and it's easy to see when Brandon and Lana want to get out.

The film isn't flawless.  Sometimes the writing isn't as crisp as it should be, leading to some confusion about the particulars of a few select scenes.  Additionally, the film's most intense scene, where Brandon is raped, is spliced with her interview with the Sheriff (Lou Perryman) and it's not done very well.  Pierce should have let the scenes play out chronologically.  It would have been more intense, yes, but also more honest.

In another of the MPAA's boneheaded moves, they initially gave the film an NC-17 for the rape scene.  Naturally, Pierce was against cutting any of it because it would have been disrespectful to Brandon.  She was forced to cut the scene some and also the some of the sexual activity between Brandon and Lana.  Such demands are insensitive and infuriating.  But that's what we expect from the MPAA.

Nevertheless, "Boys Don't Cry" is an electrifying piece of cinema.  Definitely a must see.