PARAMOUNT CLASSICS (2)
October 8
Clark Gregg gives a stellar performance as Sebastian's transsexual
stepfather.
Father and son come of
The Adventures of Sebastian Cole England to start a new life. However, Joan
Directed by Tod Williams Paramount Classics
Reviewed by Dawn E. Leach
The Adventures of Sebastian Cole is a story of teen angst and rebellion in the 1980s, as seen through the eyes of the teenage Sebastian Cole.
Besides being a coming-of-age story, it is also a coming out story about Sebastian's transsexual stepfather, Hank/Henrietta.
Near the beginning of the film, Sebastian and his older sister, Jessica, are called into the family's living room for Hank's revelation that he is starting the process of transitioning to live as a woman.
Jessica flies off the handle at the news. Sebastian's mom, Joan, who is clearly not coping well with the news either, offers no help.
"Mom! What the fuck is this insane bullshit?" Jessica demands at the top of her lungs.
"I don't know, baby," Joan responds with an edge of anger in her voice that is only slightly more understated than Jessica's.
"You freaky fuck," Jessica screams at Hank, smashing random objects with a tennis racket. "I hate you!"
After Jessica finishes her tantrum and stomps off, Joan turns to Hank in disgust before she too makes an exit.
"Jesus, Hank," she spits out. “I hope it's worth it to you."
Sebastian, the only family member who doesn't seem fazed by the news, is left sitting on the sofa in a classic teenager slouch. After a silence, he asks his stepfather his pressing question: "You're gonna have your dick cut off?”
Apparently, this is about the extent of his curiosity about what his stepfather is going through. Sebastian is a teenager-he's
wrapped up in his own
world to concern
too
himself much with others, except as it directly impacts his life. Sebastian encounters his sister again as she is getting onto the back of her boyfriend's motorcycle.
"I'm going to the arcade," he tells her. "Mom's throwing dishes and glasses and stuff."
Jessica flees to California with her boyfriend, and Joan
whisks Sebastian off to
does nothing in England but drink and feel sorry for herself. Sebastian tires of dodging flying dishes, and soon he is on a plane, going back to the United States to move in with Henrietta.
Henrietta immediately establishes the house rules, which Sebastian, being a teenager, begins to test. Mostly, Sebastian sees Henrietta as an obstacle to his adventures with mind-altering substances, dating and sex, and other “real life.” And on occasion, he shows respect and affection for Henriettain that lukewarm, aloof, teenager way.
In other words, they proceed to have a normal parent-teen relationship.
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Hank/Henrietta is portrayed with a sensitivity belied by the movie's trite promotional line, which touts it as "a movie about sex, rebellion, and a stepfather named Henrietta.' Writer-director Tod Williams and actor Clark Gregg, who plays Hank/Henrietta deserve credit for a skillful, sympathetic portrayal of a transsexual woman going through transition.
Williams' comments on casting the role of Hank/Henrietta are telling:
"Most of the actors, some quite good, tended to concentrate on the oddness of the character," Williams said. “Clark played the scenes simply for the truth of each scene. That kind of straightforward honesty is exactly how the character was conceived. Any easy camping would have threatened the integrity of the character."
In a refreshing change from most mainstream portrayals of transsexuals, Hank/Henrietta is the most stable character in the story-and also the
only
of age
adult paying attention to Sebastian's upbringing.
This is clear early in the movie, when pretransition Hank pulls Sebastian aside to let him know that his report card came in the mail, and he is going to have to buckle down and bring his grades up.
Hank is determined to see that Sebastian makes something of himself.
"Your mother spoils you rotten and your father ain't around," Hank tells Sebastian, and lets him know that he still has one parent he has to answer to.
Williams said in creating the relationship between the two characters, he was inspired by the relationship between Huckleberry and Jim in Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
"The relationship between Sebastian and Hank/Henrietta has the same giveand-take," Williams said, “where the two support each other, at the same time they are struggling to understand their individual quests for identity."
Though the relationship between Sebastian and his step-mom Henrietta may have classical roots, the structure of the movie is
Continued on page 17
"Your dad's a fag?" Wayne (Russel Harper, center) asks Sebastian (Adrian Grenier, right). Sebastian responds matter-of-factly, "He still wants to be with Mom, so I guess he's a dyke.”