I would lastly question the decision in the script to make the mother pregnant but maybe that's something I just didn't quite pick up on. Any suggestions?
Normally things like this annoy me a little - I will have to be more tolerant in future. :-) I think you may have hit on something very important that I certainly missed.
My usual flippant answer would be "She was pregnant because she had sex with her husband." I get frustrated with movie fans who need a reason or an explanation for every tiny, sometimes unimportant, detail. The fact is, in life, sometimes mothers are pregnant.
But then I read some of the other posts on this thread and it did get me thinking. Then I remembered a young girl, 12 or 13 years old, that I knew many years ago. She was the third child in her family, all girls. She told me that her dad had decided that she would have to be the boy that he didn't have. (Remarkable insight for a young girl). He took her to cricket matches (baseball would be the US equivalent - and he would have nicknamed her "Slugger" lol) and played cricket with her at home. She was daddy's favourite - because she was the son that he didn't have, while her two sisters were allowed to be "girly".
I remember as she reached puberty that this caused her conflict. From the day she first grew pubic hair she decided to shave it off. It was a constant reminder to her that she couldn't always be dad's little boy. And her first period was traumatic. She told me that it represented the beginning of the end for her father/"son" relationship. Now she would have to compete with her older sisters for dad's affection, on an equal basis. (I told you she was insightful).
And, yes, I guess you would say she was a tomboy. She dressed like Laure and had a haircut that often had her mistaken for a boy, pre-puberty.
Now we don't have any evidence in the film but maybe Laure's father had seen her as the son he wanted to have. Wait, there IS a little bit of evidence - the way he was teaching her to drive at age 10. From my experience, fathers do that with their sons much more than their daughters. Oh, and the sip of beer too - a father/son thing! I think we've got it! :-)
Then the arrival of a real son would have changed things. Laure didn't have to be the son any more - someone else was going to fulfil that role, admittedly not for a few years. (Not that I'm suggesting she was *forced* into that role - she adopted it quite happily). But now she could go back to being a girl - if the other kids allowed her to. And Lisa, clearly, was going to.
I have to be careful how I say this for fear of offending members of the gay, lesbian and transgender community, who I know have embraced this film. (Sorry for the generalisation).
I am not convinced that Laure was a boy trapped in a girl's body. I know there are children in that position and I can only begin to guess how traumatic that must be - and they have my deepest sympathy. (I cried so much for Brandon/Teena in Girls Don't Cry, and I got angry and swore at my TV screen at the way he was treated, and I know why suicide often seems the best way out for them. I am not in any way trying to trivialise the suffering they endure). I just don't think it was the case with Laure - she seemed quite chuffed when her mum told her that she looked nice with the make-up, even though she was initially embarrassed to look "girly".
Laure looked to me throughout the film as a girl who had made a decision on the spur of the moment (to introduce herself as Mikael) and was now stuck with it. She began to realise the difficulties she would have when school started. Even peeing at the side of the football field caused problems, as she tried to continue her masquerade.
Just like the young girl I knew, I think Laure will now be able to be just a normal 10 year old girl. Yes, she is going to be teased for awhile but that will go away eventually. That pregnancy might have been VERY important.
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scissorhands__emily
11 years ago
Interesting take. I find our parents can sometimes put a lot of pressure on us. I was the youngest of 3 children and the only girl. I always felt a pressure to be girly from my mother. However, I just never was. I may have grown up wearing the cute girly outfits in elementary school because that's what she dressed me in, but I hung around all the boys. In middle school when I dressed myself I looked a mess! Baggy shirts and pants every day! My mom got her girl but I was not what she expected!
Back to the movie, I really did not get the sense that Laure felt pressured to take up this tomboyish persona. Yes her dad did interact with her similar to a young son, but who is to say that he didn't start treating her this way as a direct reaction to how Laure chose to act? Plus would Laure really have felt the pressure to act as the surrogate son for the family? She is the oldest child, four years older than Jeanne. It's possible when she was four her dad suddenly started treating her like a son because Jeanne was born, but I just think that is unlikely.
In regards to the mom's pregnancy, I don't really find it that odd. They have two daughters so perhaps they wanted to try once more for a son? The age difference may be a little much, but there is Jeanne there in the middle. It could also be a "release" for Laure, but it could also be a representation of what she isn't.
I am not so sure that Laure just got sucked into this lie. I think she truly enjoyed being a boy. Yes the lie did get out of hand, but if Laure could keep up the lie or choose to be Mickael which would she choose? I don't think it's so clear cut. She easily could have told Lisa in that first encounter that she was a girl, but chose not to. She did not have to allow the relationship with Lisa to develop to the point it did. Maybe Laure does not know at this point in time whether she'd rather be a boy or not, but I'd say she is definitely questioning it. Plus, Laure's frustrations with trying to pee outside the football field or wearing a bathing suit may have been because it was hard to keep up the lie, but it is also just as possible that she was frustrated that she wasn't just a boy like the others.
Also I didn't really think Laure was flattered when her mom said the makeup suited her. Why would she? We have seen that up til this point she enjoys wearing clothes that are very tomboyish, so I don't see why she would enjoy wearing the makeup. I say this as someone who was a tomboy as a girl (not transgender), and if someone put makeup on me and said it looked cute I would just brush it off or find it annoying.
Also, throughout the film what we see of Laure is basically Mickael. Laure basically is Mickael except she is a girl. Laure chooses to dress like Mickael, act that way, etc. Laure can definitely grow up to stop being so tomboyish, but who knows. Many people are naturally more masculine or more feminine and don't grow out of it.
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