 "Photo: Courtesy of Film Movement")
“XXY,” the directorial debut from Lucia Puenzo, reveals the aggressive curiosity of gender without eschewing the sensitive temperament of an adolescent hermaphrodite dealing with the conflict of social mores.
Fifteen-year-old Alex, played by Ines Efron, is a hermaphrodite living as a girl, an only child raised by her mother and her terse marine biologist father. (The father’s occupational choice seems almost intuitive by Puenzo, given the images of many sea creatures present on the screen who share the same biological make-up as Alex.)
Her mother has invited her old friend, Erika, and her surgeon husband, Ramiro, to come visit. Ramiro and Erika bring their son Alvaro, who is near the same age as Alex. Alex is quite forward with Alvaro, who seems blasé, wandering around the seaside town permanently attached to headphones. However, after an argument the two engage in unforeseeable sex that causes both to question their own sexual orientation.
Both parents and children go through an emotional rollercoaster as a result. The townspeople are also eventually affected by the drama between these two families.
This is a bold story but not overblown. The characters seem entirely themselves and the narrative moves along quietly and avoids any sort of platitude that would exploit this delicate issue into dogmatism. Puenzo takes a risk, but makes the right choice, by posing a question on the subject instead of making a statement, leaving “XXY”’s audience to decide how to best deal with those in similar positions similar to Alex’s.
Grade: B
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