Susan Granger's review of "Soldier's Girl" (Showtime TV)
After receiving a standing ovation at this year's Sundance Film Festival, this bizarre, controversial drama about homosexuality in the military premieres on Showtime TV on Saturday night, May 31, at 9 PM. It's the true story of 21 year-old Pfc. Barry Winchell (Troy Garity) who was beaten to death with a baseball bat as he slept at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, in 1999.
Ostensibly straight, Winchell, nevertheless, fell in love with Calpernia Adams (Lee Pace), a transsexual Nashville nightclub performer. To say that the learning-disabled Winchell was naive at first is an understatement, but he quickly realized that this sexy drag queen is a pre-operative transsexual. While his airborne infantry buddies found the gay bar both enticing and repugnant, Winchell decided to date the vulnerable, perceptive Adams, who revealed he/she had previously been a Navy combat medic during the Gulf War. Winchell's steadfast determination to pursue this romantic relationship tipped his mentally unstable roommate (Shawn Hatosy) over the edge of sanity, inciting a homophobic barracks redneck (Philip Eddolls) to violence.
Screenwriter Ron Nyswaner and director Frank Pierson rise above the conventional story structure to explore transgender intimacy issues and to evoke righteous indignation about the military's "don't ask, don't tell, don't pursue" policy, but comparisons with "Boys Don't Cry" and "The Crying Game" are inevitable. Troy Garity (Jane Fonda's son) captures Winchell's simple stoicism, while Lee Pace delivers a remarkably compelling, convincing performance, utilizing prosthetics to enhance the illusion. On the Granger TV-Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, "Soldier's Girl" is a sensual, sensitive, disquieting 6. "Welcome to the other side of the looking glass."
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