Philip
Eddolls (right) picks a fight, though
Troy Garity prefers peace. (Ken Woroner/Showtime)
Although it contains graphic violence, the heart
of this engrossing TV movie is the unlikely but true love
story of Army Pvt. Barry Winchell (Troy Garity) and Calpernia
Addams (Lee Pace), a transgendered nightclub performer.
Garity (son of Jane Fonda and Tom Hayden) and Pace give
performances of extraordinary emotional honesty as Barry
and Calpernia's relationship progresses from curiosity
to passion to tenderness.
Then tragedy takes over. An unstable
soldier (Shawn Hatosy) stirs up barracks homophobia
and goads a malleable rookie (Philip Eddolls) into murdering
Barry. The bloody act is almost unbearable to watch,
in part because Barry's happiness has come to mean so
much to us.
