Review: A transgender homecoming -- and so much more -- in 'Prodigal Sons'
By Stan Hall, Special to The Oregonian
April 22, 2010, 3:42PM
http://www.oregonlive.com/movies/index.ssf/2010/04/review_a_transgender_homecomin.html (http://www.oregonlive.com/movies/index.ssf/2010/04/review_a_transgender_homecomin.html)
From the can't-make-this-stuff-up department comes Kimberly Reed's unique documentary "Prodigal Sons," about a transgender woman (Reed herself) returning to her hometown of Helena, Mont., for her first post-op visit. Not that unusual until it's revealed that she's attending her high school class reunion -- the school where Kim, back then a strapping lad named Paul McKerrow, embodied an ideal of American manliness as the star quarterback.
Complicating matters is Kim's estranged relationship with her adopted brother, Marc, a talented but tortured man who was in the same graduating class as his sibling and has felt overshadowed ever since. It doesn't help that a terrible accident in Marc's 20s resulted in his having had a chunk of his brain removed, causing split-personality behaviors and wild, sometimes violent mood swings. There are times when it is hard to understand why Kim is willing to deal with her brother.