Lack of good storyline.

From my favorite movies..

Fantastic!

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

In the opening scene there are pictures of the "perfect couple" in the newspapers, celebrating their anniversary of over twenty five years - which is a very long time. They must know each other inside out, every positives or negatives they might have. They live in a beautiful house, they have sweet children that are full of life and healthy. They seem to have everything in order and shows the fantasy like lifestyle of any couples future. However this story has one of the most shocking story lines I have ever seen in a movie. The husband has been hiding his true identity this whole time and confesses that he is a transgender woman, trapped inside of a mans body. This is highly shocking and the wife cannot accept this at first. Her reaction to his confession, although it is violent and cruel, it is definitely understanding. After being with the man for so long, she was completely convinced that she knew everything there is to know about him. She feels as if she has been lied to through out the whole relationship and her life is falling apart. Her gradual acceptance is also heartfelt and warm, as we see her suffering yet trying desperately to understand her husbands destiny, especially after witnessing him trying to commit suicide from the pressure he could not deal with anymore. This movie showed how natural it was for person to become transgender, and that it is not something they choose for themselves. Everyone is born with a gender, and in this case the physical aspect and the mental aspect were switched, and mismatched. How the wife, his co- worker, his boss all reacted show how real life society would react to this kind of situation. People are not educated to understand there are "different" types of people, and that they are normal in their own way. We are educated to believe that it is an abnormality, a disease, and a disorder instead of trying to reach out and understand their situation. The bullying that the main character experienced in his manly, work place also reflect on the amount of rejection society has towards indifferences. However we see that the unconditional love of the wife and the daughter, and gradually the son after some time, reveal that all the husband needed was support to get rid of all the anxieties he had been feeling. The indifferences did not change a person, it actually made the people around him more open minded and accepting to differences between people. This movie really opened up my world as well and helped me see something that I was taught was a type of "retardation" as well. Watching this movie helped me realize that we need to learn to love and accept each others indifferences no matter how hard it is.

Normal is a human drama about a married man who makes a decision to go through a sex- change operation. He confesses to his wife that he has been struggling with a gender disorder since he was a child. The film without a doubt explores the life of Ruth, in the most realistic and non-glamorous way possible without eliminating its emotional connection with the audience. As a truck factory worker in a very masculine working environment, and living in a very small town that is limited in such knowledge on alternative lifestyle, Ruth struggles to be accepted, respected or even looked as a human being. His relationship with his wife is explored in a non glamorous way, and clearly sets the stands for both Ruth's and his wife Irma's character, their view on the situation and their emotional journey through the process of Ruth's sex change. The reaction from their off springs is another subject that the film succeeded in representing. Both children have different reactions to their father's decision, but relate and explain their reactions from their age and characteristics. Both Irma and Ruth have great acting that transcends their emotional journey and hardship through such less explored topics on gender in film. But the film does not take the topic of gender completely foreign and stills keeps the mood of common social issues the same way it does with other human dramas, which succeeds in making it easier for the audience to consumer.

"Normal" tells the story of Roy and Irma, who have been married for 25 years. The marriage has got ups and downs, but after 25 years you would think that they've seen the worst. At least, that's what Irma thought. But then Roy reveals something he had kept secret for quite some years. He doesn't feel comfortable in his own body, he feels like God gave him the wrong body. He wants to be a woman.What follows is the struggle of Irma and Roy, handling this problem. First we got Roy's part, who feels relieved after his confession and happy as well being finally 'out of the closet'. But his colleagues and friends aren't very supportive and understanding. There's the scene where Roy got punched by some of his colleagues after he came to work wearing earrings. I really loved this scene. Not the beating of course but the part where he is walking to the workplace wearing men clothes and still looking like a man, but wearing typical women earrings. It thought it was amazingly brave doing this! I felt sorry for him as well because I knew he would be punched by some of his colleagues for this.On the other hand we have the struggle of Irma, who suddenly has lost her husband after 25 years of marriage. The problem isn't that her husband didn't thread her respectful neither that he was cheating on her. The problem was that her husband who she had loved for more than 25 years, suddenly was becoming a woman. The problem is also that she doesn't have anyone else, she doesn't want anyone else either."Normal" is a magnificent movie handling a very difficult subject: sex change. Both leading actors are brilliant. Tom Wilkinson is extraordinary good. Magnificent performance! Jessica Lange on the other hand is very touching in her role of being the supportive and understanding wife. Being there for her husband, through anything. It's this element of unconditional love and the outstanding acting performances by both leading actors that makes the movie so wonderful. Certainly worth watching! 8/10

I'm always a big fan of movies where a child character is strong and decisive and propels the action. In this case, however, I found "Patty Ann" a bit too mature to be true, despite Hayden Panettiere's masterful portrayal. And that's pretty much my response to the rest of the story and cast as well: there was some unusually good acting here, but the outcomes strain one's suspension of disbelief. Of course this is, in essence, a love story, so a bit of romanticism should hardly be surprising. All of that said, we have a film dealing with the extremely anxiety-provoking and until recently taboo subject of transgendered persons. Such an endeavor easily could have been impossible to watch, or else comical, or else trite. "Normal" is none of these. We come to understand and share all the characters' pain (how sad that that useful expression has become a cliché!), yet without losing touch with their persistence in hope, or with our own.