'Just Like a Woman' is Just a Drag

"Just Like a Woman" draws no laughs compared to the flamboyant fun of "Priscilla, Queen of the Desert" and the slapstick humor of "Mrs. Doubtfire." This serious film tells the true story of Englishwoman Monica Jay (Julie Walters), a lonely, fortysomething Middlesex housewife who becomes involved with Gerald (Adrian Pasdar), an American, a heterosexual and a sometime transvestite.

At first, Gerald seems the perfect English stereotype of the red-blooded young American businessman. If not for the opening credit sequence in which a prepubescent Gerald watches his mother dress up for a theater performance, the audience would have no indication of Gerald's special interest. He merely seems a young go-getter with an especially intense, heavy-lidded gaze.

Soon enough, Gerald is thrown out of the house by his wife, who is suspicious of another woman who has left her clothes and makeup on the bed ("Who-ever she is, she's got terrible taste."). Gerald ends up in a boarding house run by the lively, recently divorced Monica.

After a few awkward encounters, things progress predictably. They make love (rather quickly, one notes with disappointment for Monica) and after a long, painful silence, Adrian tells Monica that he's a cross-dresser. The housewife giggles for a spell but soon enough she accepts Gerald for what he is--a straight man who enjoys cross-dressing.

The most daring and stimulating scene is the one which introduces Monica to Geraldine, Gerald's female persona. Gerald goes through a slow and shadowy transformation into a new creature, strange but not grotesque to Monica. Monica becomes child-like, awed by the change and is seduced by the tall, bewigged Geraldine.

When the two women kiss, "Just Like a Woman" crackles with the challenge to traditional norms of heterosexual relations.

The moment doesn't last long, though. Instead of exploring the capacity of heterosexual woman to accept their male cross-dressing companions, "Just Like a Woman" spins off into a boring subplot about Gerald's corrupt boss.

The film ends in a boardroom show-down, as Geraldine and Monica--both wearing skirts--show up the bad guys. Big deal, especially since Pasdar's performance breaks down in the big boardroom and not even a green suit and red glasses help.

Save for a spattering of fresh portrayals of regular folks' ability to assimilate the unusual tastes of their otherwise straight mates, "Just Like a Woman" is just like a TV movie, predictable and cinematographically uninteresting.

On the other hand, "The World's Most Beautiful Breats," a 1991 German short playing in conjunction with "Just Like a Woman" is mind-bending and fun. An accidental bump in an elevator leaves Simon Perelstein (Dominic Raacke) and Jeanette Apfel (Eva Kryll) utterly (nay udderly) changed.

Neither one is too upset, as each realizes the benefits to be had from the switch.

Ample shots of the eponymous breasts and excellent special effects create a convincing (as far as it goes) and thoroughly enjoyable short film in the best tradition of European irreverence.

For those who seek meaning despite mediocre quality, this light-hearted short may even help fill out the paucity of the theme in "Just Like a Woman." Breasts may matter far more than we thought and "The World's Most Beautiful Breasts" should not be underestimated.