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Review: 20 Centimeters (20 Centímetros, 2005) ★★★★½

<p>When first introduced to <em>20 Centimeters<&sol;em>&comma; I was understandably skeptical&period; A musical about a narcoleptic transgender woman with a 20-centimeter penis sounds like the kind of film that would simply revel in the grotesque&comma; obscene&comma; inaccurate&comma; and offensive&period; But though it does feature many musical numbers&comma; and there are certainly humorous elements to the plot&comma; this is not the kind of jovial&comma; exaggerated display of stereotypes and misguided attempts at political progressivism that it would seem at first glance&period; This film is a surprisingly realistic &lpar;to a certain degree&rpar;&comma; compassionate portrayal of the life of a preoperative transgender prostitute in Spain&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Sure&comma; there are artistic embellishments&period; The lead character&comma; Marieta&comma; lives with a little person named Tomás&comma; who is constantly looking for his next moneymaking scheme&period; Marieta works as a prostitute&comma; though she longs to have a normal job &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;like a regular woman&period;” On top of being a preoperative transgender woman&comma; Marieta suffers from narcolepsy&comma; frequently falling asleep at random times&comma; which affords her clients the opportunity to take advantage of her while she is asleep&period; Eventually&comma; with the assistance of a temp agency&comma; she is able to land a job as a night janitor at a mall&comma; but since her ID still shows her as a male named Adolfo&comma; she has to wear a man’s uniform and pretend to be male in front of her coworkers&period; While shopping for groceries at her local market&comma; Marieta becomes infatuated with a man named Raúl&period; They begin a passionate affair&comma; but Marieta quickly realizes that Raúl is primarily interested in her penis&comma; and enjoys being the submissive partner when they have sex&period; Since it has always been Marieta’s lifelong dream to have sex reassignment surgery&comma; she concludes that it will never work with Raúl&comma; and decides to dump him&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The intimate depiction of life as a transgender woman is frequently interrupted with somewhat jarring musical numbers&period; Though the musical sequences are used to present some of Marieta’s inner-dialogue and feelings&comma; functioning like dream sequences as she struggles with financial problems&comma; relationships&comma; and her gender and sexual identity&comma; they are different both visually and tonally&period; The bright colors and exaggerated costumes are reminiscent of Bollywood’s large-scale dance numbers&comma; while the &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;normal” scenes use muted colors and cramped&comma; almost claustrophobic locales&period; The two disparate elements of the film don’t feel very naturally when juxtaposed with one another&comma; but the musical sequences work to brighten an otherwise depressing tone&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;784" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-784" style&equals;"width&colon; 629px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-784" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;05&sol;151262&lowbar;full-300x199&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Monica Cervera in 20 Centimeters 2005" width&equals;"629" height&equals;"417"><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-784" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">20 CENTIMETROS&comma; &lpar;aka 20 CENTIMETERS&rpar;&comma; Pablo Puyol&comma; Rossy de Palma&comma; 2005&period; ©TLA<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>One aspect of the film that really shines is Marieta’s characterization&period; It is usually very obvious when a filmmaker who knows very little about the transgender experience tries to make a film about it &lpar;see&colon; <em>The Crying Game<&sol;em>&comma; 1992&rpar;&comma; but this is one of the few films that seems to understand the struggles that transgender people face on a daily basis&period; Difficulties finding and keeping steady jobs &lpar;outside of the sex industry&rpar;&comma; archaic laws and stringent rules regarding identification&comma; violence&comma; difficulty with access to adequate healthcare and hormones&comma; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;tranny chasers&comma;” and the list goes on&period; Despite being a musical that ostensibly takes a tongue-in-cheek approach to the transgender experience&comma; <em>20 Centimeters <&sol;em>is a surprisingly thoughtful and beautiful representation of a woman who simply wants to find love and happiness in a world that cares very little for her troubles&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>20 Centimeters<&sol;em> is also refreshing&comma; though not perfect&comma; in its casting&period; Even today&comma; it is an unfortunate habit of filmmakers to fill the roles of transgender women with male actors&colon; <em>The Crying Game<&sol;em> &lpar;1992&rpar;&comma; <em>Ma Vie en Rose<&sol;em> &lpar;1997&rpar;&comma; <em>A Soap<&sol;em> &lpar;2006&rpar;&comma; <em>The Danish Girl<&sol;em> &lpar;2015&rpar;&comma; and so on&period; But director Ramón Salazar cast Mónica Cervera in the lead role&comma; and Rossy de Palma as her post-operative transgender friend and fellow prostitute&period; A few transgender women appear in very minor roles&comma; though ideally actual transgender actresses would play all of the transgender parts&period; Nonetheless&comma; Salazar at least had the foresight and artistic integrity to cast women to portray women&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In short&comma; <em>20 Centimeters<&sol;em> is a superb and entertaining portrayal of the transgender experience and should not be missed&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Rating&colon; &starf;&starf;&starf;&starf;&half; out of 5<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>If you&&num;8217&semi;d like to watch <em>20 Centimeters<&sol;em>&comma; it is currently available to rent or purchase <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;amazon&period;com&sol;gp&sol;product&sol;B01EXSZUDG&sol;ref&equals;as&lowbar;li&lowbar;qf&lowbar;sp&lowbar;asin&lowbar;il&lowbar;tl&quest;ie&equals;UTF8&amp&semi;tag&equals;mjones34880c-20&amp&semi;camp&equals;1789&amp&semi;creative&equals;9325&amp&semi;linkCode&equals;as2&amp&semi;creativeASIN&equals;B01EXSZUDG&amp&semi;linkId&equals;d7fc55975e5791045e5f1f684fd91e9d">via Amazon here<&sol;a>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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