"Just Like A Woman"
                             A film review by
                           Linda Lopez McAlister
                           on "The Women's Show"
                         WMNF-FM (88.5), Tampa, FL
                             December 3, 1994

    I couldn't find anything in the multiplexes of Tampa that I wanted to
review this morning (although there are several films recently released in the
bigger markets that fit under the "women and film" rubric and should be here
in the next few weeks: "Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle,"--a film about
Dorothy Parker--and "Nell"--produced by and starring Jodie Foster--to name two
I'm looking forward to seeing.) Meanwhile, the two most interesting sounding
films in our area are out at the Beach Theater in St. Pete Beach--a double
bill of the English production "Just Like A Woman" and a New Zealand
lesbian-themed film called "Desperate Remedies." I caught "Just Like A Woman"
last night and will probably go back to see "Desperate Remedies" today or
tomorrow.

   Maybe it's just coincidence, but it occurred to me while driving home that
I have never seen a film with Julie Walters in it that I didn't find just
incredibly warm, feminist, and positively life-affirming: "Educating Rita,"
"Stepping Out," "The Summerhouse" and now "Just Like A Woman." It's not
necessarily because of Walters's performances--often she has rather small
parts--so it must be more a matter of the projects she chooses to get involved
with. The first two of the films in this list were written by Willie Russell
(also responsible for "Shirley Valentine") a man who knows how to write
wonderful woman-loving films.

   Anyway "Just Like A Woman" is another Julie Walters vehicle that gave me a
great deal of movie-going pleasure and, once again, is a woman-loving film,
stretching that concept to, perhaps, its outer limit. For this is a love story
about Monica, a fiftysomething divorcee, and Gerald (aka Geraldine), a
thirtysomething transvestite. As the film opens Gerald, a high- powered London
banker, is being divorced by his wife because she thinks, based on feminine
lingerie she finds on her early return home from a trip, that Gerald's been
cheating on her. He finds a room to rent in Monica's house which she has
recently turned into a boarding house after splitting with her husband of
twenty-two years. Though Gerald is young enough to be her son, she is
attracted to him and he to her but when they make love Gerald becomes
distraught and remote. When he finally comes to talk to her, Monica's prepared
for what she thinks he's going to say (that this won't work between them)--but
not for what he does say. He comes out to her as a transvestite (for the first
time in his life). Monica's flabbergasted and nervous reaction is to laugh
which wounds Gerald. Monica, however, recognizes how hurtful her response was
and she goes to him and asks him to let her meet "Geraldine." In a (literally)
pivotal scene Gerald transforms himself into Geraldine before her eyes and
they embrace once more with the right chemistry before the fade out. (Maybe
this is what a male lesbian is.)

    The rest of the film introduces Monica (and the audience) to the world of
men like Gerald who are heterosexual in that they are sexually attracted to
women but desire to dress as women and who, in many cases, have understanding
wives who accompany them to their nightclubs or, once they've got their
courage up, out into the world during the day as well. It depicts the
treatment of transvestites by the police and how an arrest can then escalate
into losing one's job and self-esteem.

    The film treats this topic with great good humor while not slighting the
serious side of the topic and while performing an educational function. It
draws distinctions between transvestites, transsexuals, and drag queens
(categories that are often confused) and notes cheerfully in the final credits
that since one man in twenty harbors the desire to dress in women's clothing
the man sitting next to you may.

    There is a kind of exciting subplot about Gerald's job in which he and his
colleague outwit their shady boss and save the day for a Japanese client the
boss is trying to hoodwink, and the whole film ends, as a romantic comedy
should, with the lovers reunited and about to live happily ever after--in this
case sharing their wardrobe. The film is called "Just Like A Woman" and I
found it very enjoyable.

   For the WMNF Women's Show this has been Linda Lopez McAlister on Women and
Film.

Linda Lopez McAlister is professor of women's studies and philosophy at
the University of South Florida, Tampa, FL.

   Copyright 1994 by Linda Lopez McAlister. All rights reserved. Please do not
reprint this review without the permission of the author.