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SOLDIER'S GIRL
by Merle Bertrand
(2003-01-23)
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2002, Un-rated,
111 Minutes, Showtime
A military base is probably just about the last place
you'd like to start questioning your sexuality. Especially if it's a place
like Ft. Campbell, Kentucky, the home of the hard-core, testosterone-fueled
Airborne Infantry's "Screaming Eagles" division. For Private
Barry Winchell (Troy Garity), an earnest and decent young soldier,
questions about his sexuality arise from a sort of sneak attack; an ambush,
if you will, which comes in the alluring form of Calpernia Addams (Lee
Pace). Calpernia, you see, is a stunning trans-gendered performer at
Visions nightclub. Only partway through her transformation, Calpernia is
all woman from the waist up, yet a certain crucial $50,000 operation away
from completing her sexual reassignment.
Barry first spots Calpernia on a trip to Visions
organized by Specialist Justin Fisher (Shawn Hatosy), a hyperactive beehive
of rage, hate, overblown machismo and a manipulative vulnerability. Egged
on by Fisher, who orders Barry on a "mission" to determine
whether Calpernia is a man or a woman, the gentlemanly soldier immediately
becomes smitten with her. A tenuous and awkward courtship follows, one in
which "Don't ask, don't tell" is as much the policy between Barry
and his sexually ambiguous partner as it is official military policy.
It turns out that this newly enacted, cumbersome policy
is the least of Barry's worries, however. For in the zero-tolerance world
of the Airborne Infantry, stronger and even deadlier deterrents than
"Don't ask, don't tell" might be in order, at least in the
twisted and unbalanced mind of Specialist Fisher.
"Soldier's Girl" is a film that could very
easily have slipped into campiness or exploitation. The fact that the film
is based on a tragic real life true story, however, undoubtedly helped to
keep director Frank Pierson's film grounded in realism. It's a surprisingly
sexy film which pushes just enough buttons to make what would appear to be
a highly implausibe scenario -- true story or not -- somehow seem like not
so much of a leap.
Much of this must be attributed to Pace's astonishing
portrayal of Calpernia. A perfect mix of slinky femininity with just enough
residual manliness around the edges -- the husky voice, the merest shadow
of facial hair -- Pace's performance demonstrates how Barry could have
found Calpernia so appealing...as well as so forbidden for a straight man
in the military.
Garity does a fine job as the ever levelheaded Barry,
while Hatosy, too, is excellent as Fisher, an overly wound time bomb whose
mere presence on screen serves to ratchet up the tension.
Despite its odd and compelling premise, "Soldier's
Girl" largely follows the same well-worn path trod by many films
dealing with forbidden and/or tragic love. As such, there's a certain sense
of missed opportunity surrounding the film. Even so, it's easily the best
story about trans-gendered love to come along in quite a while. And
"Soldier's Girl" is a solid enough romantic tragedy in its own
right to be worth a look.
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