Just B Natural

We watch films and are attracted to certain movies because we look for ourselves; we look for someone to identify with to say “That’s me”.

Hedwig hits the viewer in such a vulnerable spot that anyone watching the film, regardless of his orientation will be charmed by the characters portrayal by John Cameron Mitchell.

As a successful adaptation of the stage production from New York, this zany comedy, with its inventive and incisive material, deserves the Audience Award it won at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival.

We meet Hedwig (John Cameron Mitchell) working with her band in a local restaurant near the salad bar as she exclaims that she’s the “internationally ignored” rock singer who has traveled from Communist Berlin. Managed by the singular person who applauds during their musical sets, Phyllis Stein (Andrea Martin) is the band manager that keeps the family together. As we travel with the band we travel into Hedwig’s own memories as he share the stories of how he was a young boy named Hansel, raised by a single mother in Germany, then several years later is attracted to an American GI Sergeant who agrees to marry Hansel and take him to America if he follows through with a sex change operation in order to be come a complete woman. When the operation fails leaving Hedwig with and “angry inch”, his GI husband abandons him in Kansas and Hedwig is left to fend for himself by doing a series of side gigs. When she meets young Tommy Gnosis (Michael Pitt) the two bond until Tommy steals Hedwig’s songs and become a huge rock star leaving Hedwig pathetically playing in the shadows. As Hedwig performs we learn how his ultimate desire is to become a whole person by meeting his other half, someone he can bond with in every way.

Easily the single commanding performance of John Cameron Mitchell in the title role of Hansel/ Hedwig, recreating his off-Broadway role in the film is what carries this unique tale of self-discovery. As the director Mitchell can stand up and take credit to be able to use his own face and body to express the wide range of emotion of the singer Hedwig.

Hedwig is one of the homeliest yet intriguing characters to appear onscreen since Tootsie. The difference is in the discourse of the film, insisting that one must “leave something behind” in order to move forward in life. As a male character that is stuck somewhere in between manhood and womanhood Hedwig perhaps represents everyman as having both feminine and masculine qualities as warring internal personal demons.

The stylistic way the story line is visualized allows the film to skip above pathos as we move through Hedwig’s personal history seeing how his mother Alberta Watson raises her young son the best way she can, given their poverty-stricken life in East Berlin.

Kudos to Production Designer Therese DePrez, and Art Director Nancy Pankiw in their way of creating a sparkling, and glitzy world of Hedwig and her band, and additional cheers for Cinematographer Frank DeMarco for the evenly-lit scene which allow us to see all of this kooky world of rock music by a sex-change star.

Particularly good is the way songs are used in conjunction with visuals to develop the narrative. Especially touching is the animation used for the song Hedwig sings about longing for completion, having someone to complete him/her to live life in peace. The lyrics in the tune talk about separation as we see a child-like drawing separating into two separate, yet incomplete beings, as the plaintive voice of Hedwig whines away on the sound track.

The big production numbers with the songs are equally as impressive as something from Rent or Hairspray, with more potency. The rock songs with their driving insistence will not allow the viewer to ignore the emotional upheaval of the main characters- there’s not a bad moment in the film.

Get it at Half.com for $18.50.