Shot week by week, over a year of consecutive Tuesdays, Hyde's film insightfully tracks two very different stories of becoming. The first and ostensibly the most important is the FTM gender transition of Jane to James, a transition that also entails, on one level at least, a transition from mother to father. To provide the space he needs to reassemble himself, James' 17 year old daughter, Billie, is relegated to seeing him for just one night a week. Each Tuesday, from the time Billie gets off school till 10pm, the two share some quality private time. As you'd expect, those hours are filled with a fair amount of conflict.
The other transition, the one which surprisingly turns out to be the more interesting, is Billie's journey to womanhood. At school she falls in with two senior students, whom she leads into an explicit externalisation of her sexual and emotional confusion. What starts out as an outlandish bout of "acting out" eventually becomes an compelling counterpoint to James' increasingly egocentric expression of his new self.
Piecing a film together week by week has inevitably resulted in a somewhat haphazard final product but 52 Tuesdays wears that badge with a fragile pride. The film undeniably feels assembled after the fact but the careful direction of Hyde and some deft scripting from screenwriter Matthew Cormack means their work feels more honest than contrived, even when it steps into its most unwieldy thematic territory.
The performances, which obviously play a significant role in bedding down the film's unwavering honesty, are truthful to a fault. Tilda Cobham-Hervey, who plays Billie, does an exceptional job of relating the young girl's fractured world through her pointed stoicism, and Del Herbert-Jane, who was originally brought in as an advisor on the film, is rock solid as James. Kudos to the production for casting a non gender-conforming actor in the role. Their faith has paid off, and then some; Herbert-Jane just gets it.
The supporting cast are similarly excellent, especially Beau Travis Williams as Billie's till-now-less-than-present father. I do admit I struggled somewhat with Mario Späte's anarchic characterisation of Billie's gay-coded uncle, Harry. His manipulative turns unbalanced the film in ways that didn't feel entirely motivated, especially in the fallout of the final act. But that's a minor bone of contention when all things are considered.
All in all, 52 Tuesdays is a resounding achievement. It is fresh, sincere and ultimately very moving. Not bad for a film shot on the sly with an amateur cast and next to no crew. Proof positive that real, honest, well-told stories can still find their way to our screens.
★★★☆
Trailer:
52 Tuesdays screened as part of the 2014 Melbourne Queer Film Festival.
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