Mum's Monday Different For Girls

 

Different for Girls

This film is a BBC film that came out in 1996. It is about a transgender man karl/Kim Foyle, played by Steven Mackintosh, and helps answer the question about sexual preferences (Gay or straight) in transgender people.

it is good to see the back ground to this film where Karl and Paul Prentice (Prentice), played by Rupert Graves go to the same school and are friends

Now we jump to present day by chance Prentice and Karl, now Kim, meet again, but Prentice struggles to know where he has seen Kim before, until he realises he is now a she.

it is good to see that Kim has turned out to be an independent woman with her flat, job and she quietly gets on with her life, Prentice however is immature and living precariously. Although he has a job he is behind on his rent and struggles to budget within his earnings.

After a night out Kim goes to kiss Prentice on the cheek resulting in him telling her he is straight and her reply is “so am I”. it seems the stigma from being teased at school has stuck with him. Prentice struggles with this information and he has questions and later on in the film he even buys a book on the subject. I think this was a nice gesture and very thoughtful of Prentice, it showed him growing as a person during the film.

Kim, wants to cook a nice meal for Prentice and invites him round to her flat. Prentice has more questions, after hearing the answers he leaves and after a heated argument outside her flat, the evening ends with them being arrested. Although I don’t think the proper procedures were followed, what happened had to happen to make the story work out in the end. Kim wanting her quiet life runs to stay with her family. Prentice already living on the edge makes things worse, by looking for Kim and loses his job.

This film is in some places confusing and uses a lot of artistic licence. The night Kim was supposed to have Prentice for a meal was a Friday. Kim gets home on what would be a Saturday and after Karl turns up saying he has to go to court today and needs her help, Kim runs to her sisters and then we see her what seems to be the next morning a Sunday, looking like it is a normal midweek day. This however doesn’t ruin the film I think to work its way to the final outcome, this film needs a certain amount of artistic licence, but this doesn’t distract from the story.

When Prentice and Karl were at school, Prentice protected Karl and throughout this film we see he is still Protecting Kim now. Kim realising this goes to the second court date and tells the court what happened and explains about being transgender. In this film Prentice becomes more mature and Kim becomes more outgoing. They protect and bring the best out in each other.

We still see a stigma attached when their story comes out in a newspaper. Kim is the subject of her workplace gossip, however her boss is understanding and can see what an asset Kim can be to the workplace and Kim keeps her job.

This film is done in such a way that I find that you really care for the characters as if they are real and when at the end of the film we see Kim and Prentice ride off together and disappear around the corner, I want to know what happens next.

In this film the transgender person is played by a male the gender before the change. We have since seen in Coronation Street and EastEnders the characters played by the gender after the change.

Hayley Cropper played by Julie Hesmondhalgh in Coronation Street and Kyle Slater played by Riley Carter Millington in EastEnders. Although there is nothing wrong in the casting of these actors, I still think Different for Girls is more authentic with their choice of actor because of the male aspect first then changing to the female but using special effects with the character so it would be just as it is in be in real life just without the operation and the pills.

This Blog is of my favourite film, but the film ends way too soon.

Thank you for reading

Sandra