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It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Incredibly realistic, including all of the tentative hesitancies and uncertainties of those with gender dysphoria (transsexuals). I spent a good number of years counseling people who were suffering from this issue, and this movie is the most realistic of all that I've seen regarding the issue.The older male-borns who suffer from gender dysphoria have the most difficult time, because their bodies have endured decades of testosterone shaping and effects. This movie only mildly touches upon that issue. But it's obvious from the plot that this "man born in a woman's body" isn't ready to become a swimsuit-model or a sex-idol. He or she has gender issues which have aged beyond the ability of his/her body to satisfactorily recover from. But the character of the wife, played by Jessica Lange, is done extraordinarily well. The wives of male-born transsexuals struggle not only with the loss of a lifelong sexual partner but their own identity and sexual worth among society, at a time they probably did not expect to have it forced upon them.Very well-done and realistic.

There are no words... As you watch this complex chef d'oeuvre, you'll find it easy to judge and point the finger like everyone else around "Ruth". Then you'll realize the movie isn't about him, it's about his wife. You'll see that finger come back to you pretty quickly and the judgments will stay put as you try to imagine how you would react, cope and live your life if this happened to you.Jessica Lange has come a long way since King Kong. No longer the sexpot counterpart of Jack Nicholson, she holds her own opposite Tom Wilkinson and really shows us she has only gotten better since her fantastic portrayal of Frances Farmer in "Frances"

Gender mis-placement is an important subject, even if it affects only a minority and deserves sensitive and imaginative treatment. This film offered neither. The plot was completely implausible; the casting mis-placed; and not even Tom Wilkinson (whose acting I greatly admire and usually enjoy) could rescue it. It was a great disappointment. We were given no evidence of how a marriage,which must have been under the most extreme stress, could have survived for 25 years and be regarded as the happiest in the area. The portrayal of the religious representatives was laughable in its superficiality (at some points I started to wonder whether this film was aiming to be a comedy.) The tortuous and lengthy process which must be completed before anyone can be accepted for gender re-alignment was short-circuited completely implausibly. The whole thing was a disaster.

I'm always a big fan of movies where a child character is strong and decisive and propels the action. In this case, however, I found "Patty Ann" a bit too mature to be true, despite Hayden Panettiere's masterful portrayal. And that's pretty much my response to the rest of the story and cast as well: there was some unusually good acting here, but the outcomes strain one's suspension of disbelief. Of course this is, in essence, a love story, so a bit of romanticism should hardly be surprising. All of that said, we have a film dealing with the extremely anxiety-provoking and until recently taboo subject of transgendered persons. Such an endeavor easily could have been impossible to watch, or else comical, or else trite. "Normal" is none of these. We come to understand and share all the characters' pain (how sad that that useful expression has become a cliché!), yet without losing touch with their persistence in hope, or with our own.