I saw this movie almost by accident, and it is sticking with me. I just can't get it out of my head.

Tomboy opens like most coming of age films. A family moving in to a new home. A baby on the way, and the eldest child feeling lonely, and maybe a little lost.

We follow ten year old Mickael, as he tries to make friends in his new neighborhood. He flirts innocently with the girl who lives downstairs. He plays capture the flag, and does what any boy might do. The opening of Tomboy seems a celebration of boyhood, and new beginnings.

About ten minutes into the film we are dealt a shocker. Revealed in the bath with his little sister, Michael is not Michael, but Laure... and Laure is a girl.

The film follows Laure through her summer, while she discovers herself and creates the boy who is Michael. Most at home in the form of a boy, we see Mickael shine. He is in no way girlish. This is not a disguise. This is who he truly is.

Contrasted with the boy he presents to the world, we also see Laure struggle to psyche herself up to play shirts and skins with the boys. Will she have the courage to take her top off, and run and play? We watch Laure struggle to alter her one-piece swimsuit into a Speedo, so she can swim as the boy she knows she is. There is a heartbreaking scene as she realizes that the front of her "Speedo" isn't filled out like the other boys, and I went back and forth between laughter and tears as she creates her own substitute out of her little sister's play-dough.

This is a challenging film that deals with transgenderism, childhood, and who we really are inside.

The movie is heartbreaking, but wonderful too. There is no clear answer for Mickael/Laure, but the film ends on a note of hope for the future. I highly recommend it.

See the first trailer here;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onYkjprd-t8

and the second here;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvfdCI4MArQ