My Review of "Soldier's Girl"

Soldier's Girl is a made for TV movie that was released back in 2003. It's a pretty interesting and important story to tell because the events of the movie are based on a true story. With that said, it's pretty crazy that the events actually happened.

The movie is the story of Barry Winchell, played by Troy Garity. He's a good soldier that just enjoys his time in the military and has made a few friends. You don't think much of him but you can tell he's a pretty good guy with a lot of promise.

He and his friends go out one night. I guess there's not too many bars out on military bases so they go to a gay night club that specializes in female impersonators. This is kind of a really weird situation because I would never have thought straight military soldiers would want to go to such a bar. I reminded myself that this was based on a true story so I just went with it. Some of the soldiers are good sports about it but Barry's friend Justin, played by Shawn Hatosy, is majorly homophobic. Justin's homophobia is really weird because Barry's caught him trying to fraternize with some of the trans-women in the club.

That night, Barry meets a trans-woman performer by the name of Calpernia, played by Lee Pace. She seemed to catch his eye the instant he sees her perform on stage. There is a huge scuffle with Justin and Barry as Justin is drunk so he goes total homophobic mode.

I have to say they did some crazy make-up work on Lee Pace for this movie because he looks nothing like his character Ronan in Guardians of the Galaxy. You have to see it for yourself to understand the crazy transformation they did with him.

Anyways, the movie is about the romance between Barry and Calpernia. They both have reluctance in getting into the relationship and it's interesting what they learn about each other. The reluctance of the relationship stems mostly from their acknowledgement of the prejudice that will befall them if they continue. They all know what might happen yet they continue to pursue each other.

Back to Barry's homophobic friend Justin. You can see how unstable this guy is and they do a pretty good job in getting the audience to fear him. He always seems to be waiting for one small incident so that he can blow up and doing something crazy. In the back of your mind something crazy is going to happen. I won't give away the ending but you can tell it's going to happen but the intensity of the event is crazy.

Each of the actors do a fine job in expressing the conflict in their heads. What might logically seem like the right thing to do might not actually be so easy to do because of societal pressures. Each character has their own issues and it's smart that the characters are a little egotistical in their own right to think more about their own issues than the people around them. It gives it somewhat of a more realistic feeling to the movie.

Overall, I thought this movie was pretty good. There's some complex characters with some real issues that are explained well enough for everyone to understand. I didn't grasp some of the prejudices that trans individuals and their partners have to deal with until I saw this movie. It's a pretty good eye-opener and I hope more people get to see this movie. I'll have to give this movie an 8 out of 10. It's a very well told movie that has a pretty good message at the end.