As with all of Shirley MacLaine's films the message was well worth the two hours of my life. I recommend it highly.Not one stereotype is left unchallenged and done so subtly one has to stop and really think. Had a really difficult time watching the brutality Bruno and Angela (Stacey Halprin) had to endure from most everyone else in the film, all because they wanted/needed/were seeking to be themselves. What a society of drones we live in. "And it will take a child to lead them..." ..and a black child for that matter. Great movie, may be difficult for sensitive folks but well worth it. Had to watch it in three time periods just to let the distress at the violence subside.

This movie does not come up to the level of "Ma Vie en Rose," but then no one really expects that of an American film. While the characters, including Bruno himself, may need to search for politically correct "excuses" for his cross-dressing, we the audience can focus on the reactions, both supportive and hostile, of the adults around him. Alex D. Linz was an excellent choice for this difficult role, being about as seasoned an actor as one can be at age 11. He performs outstandingly: not pseudo-adult, but with enormous strength of his convictions. Shirley MacLaine also is both credible and creditable as the supportive adult in Bruno's life. I suppose I'm just an artistic philistine, but I can't hold it against a movie that it actually has a storyline to move things along. Of course one wonders what will happen to Bruno later on -- and perhaps some American film-maker will one day get brave enough to make a sequel.

This is a horrific re-make of the French movie Ma Vie en Rose (http://imdb.com/title/tt0119590/). The only scenario that I can imagine in which anyone (Sinise?! Bates?! Butler?! What WERE they thinking!?!) agreed to be associated with it is MacLaine seeing the original, being rightly impressed, and enlisting a friend (with no writing credits -- or talent! -- to his name) to translate the themes for American audiences -- whom they both agreed are stupid, stupid, stupid. Then she enlisted other friends to sign up, and they did so as friends -- certainly not on the merits of this pathetically contrived, everything-but-the-kitchen-sink script.I'm not a knee-jerk fan of French film, but Ma Vie en Rose is a subtle, thoughtful, and thought provoking treatment of sensitive cultural issues. I would love to see it get wider exposure among English-speaking audiences -- and if that means an American re-make, so be it. But puh-leeze! a little respect for the issues AND the intelligence of the audience -- and better direction for the actors, who couldn't seem to decide if they were working for Tennessee Williams or Jerry Lewis!

Well, this looks like a film many people (most?) didn't get. Should have got a lot more credits than it seems to have gotten. Not sure why at all it flunked the critical course. It's quite good and seems to have been Shirley MacLaine's first directing job. So, go see it or rent it. BTW, there is nothing in it of floating in clouds of spirituality over Peru, for those who have worried about that sort of thing over the course of Ms. MacLaine's almost always very distinguished career.The movie is kind of like a home movie done by an extremely talented director and a lot of other talented movie pros: it's not that it's amateurish at all; its rather that it doesn't try for finished Hollywood effects much. Just lets things out, sometimes to play, sometimes not. It's very, very well directed but not in a usual or common or regular sense. Shirley MacLaine may do her best at what you might call encouraging and allowing her actors (including herself) to do "fresh" things onscreen. Sort of like, "OK, go!" Really nice spirit about almost all of the show.And, like most good or better creations, the film doesn't at all go out of its way to explain the story it's showing you. Good. That means it's real hard to put it in a category. Also Good. It's some kind of comedy AND drama, I suppose, but please don't call it a comedy-drama, I think.The young hero, played by Alex Linz, is a quite wonderful "open" part. Again the movie does not try to explain, put words on what "exactly", "precisely" <groan> his motivations are (to win the National Catholic Spelling Bee <really>) while most of the time wearing girl-woman dress, often flamboyant. Kathy Bates as the head of the Catholic grade school he attends is wonderful, too, a quite masculine and tough (and funny) nun who just won't tolerate the boy, for awhile. And there are quite a few nice drop-ins from actors like Jennifer Tilly. Gary Sinese, who I usually think of as a great villain or great sickone, or both, is wonderful as a trying-to-be tough cop who was labelled sissy when he was his hero son's age, not least by his mother, Shirley MacLaine.I liked David Cuminello's script a lot. Got the impression he may not have written all of it???In all, a quite different film that is well worth watching, wherever. Far from run of the mill, as they say.I'm a little afraid to give it the 6 rating I've put on it, but I think I should stop worrying because I am a hard grader. Somewhere between 6 and 7 is I think where it belongs, and where I hope it's getting to on IMDB.