I enjoyed every minute of this unusual coming-of-age story. Guillaume is amusing to watch as the slightly naïve, effeminate son who thinks the world of his mother. His mother, a perpetually annoyed housewife, is equally engaging to watch. The film follows Guillaume's journey to self-discovery, from dance lessons in Spain, to boarding school in England, and even a luxurious spa in Bavaria. It is filled with hilarious moments and concludes on a heartwarming realization. Guillaume Gallienne is a wonderful revelation -- as the writer, director, and main character(s) in this film. If you are allergic to heavy drama, fear not, because this is mostly lighthearted and even during the few somber scenes, Guillaume finds a way to make the audience laugh.

Wow, when I started this movie, I thought it was really unique and well done. The performance by the writer/director was astounding, especially his dual role as Guillaume and Mother. The audaciousness of having adult actors playing children somehow worked completely, and the movie began as a remarkable tale of a transgendered girl coping with knowing she was something other than what people saw.The fact that she tried to cope with her confusion by trying to be a gay man made total sense, but it was obviously not a correct fit. The logical place for the movie to go was her self-acceptance as a trans woman. Instead, the bizarre ending where HE figured out that he was heterosexual and masculine-presenting and only wanted to be a woman to show his mother he loved her was patently ridiculous. If you're going to make a movie about gender and sexuality, you might actually want to research the topics. The ending completely confused gender, sexuality and presentation.I might be willing to say, "Well, he was confused by his mom's love and found out who he was in the end" if it hadn't been for the fact that someone who had spent his whole life presenting as effeminate and deriving satisfaction from playing female roles suddenly became this little masculine-presenting, stereotypically heterosexual man. All because he saw the "right woman." This kind of bullshit so spits in the face of people who are struggling because their gender does not conform to societal norms that I was left completely appalled and angry.Guillaume Gallienne is extraordinarily talented as both performer and director. Someone must have told him he could be the next Rowan Atkinson because he has a long, pointless episode at a spa in the middle that seems to be a Mr. Bean sketch. It is mostly unfunny and completely derails the movie. Although it is preferable to unbelievable and offensive ending.

This movie can hardly fall in the comedy category since the humour is almost imperceptible, it boils down to a succession of often boring slices of life, assembled together with not much coherence.Indeed the main problem of this « comedy » is the absence of a plot, there is no real point developed, the only common denominator being the identity quest of a main character who is unlovable, almost annoying.The narration is chaotic because of these monologues on stage that really don't create a good dynamic and that stand out a lot too much, on the form and content, from the tone of the rest of the movie.Guillaume Galliene's intention surely seems sincere and sensitive but the end result, in addition to being unsound and unfinished, is a bit egocentric.A big disappointment considering the raving critics and awards it received.

Winning 5 trophies of César Awards this year including BEST FILM (fending off tough competitors like STRANGER BY THE LAKE 2013, 8/10; THE PAST 2013, 8/10 and BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR 2013) and BEST ACTOR, for the director-debut of triple threat farceur Guillaume Gallienne (director, writer and leading actor), and more strikingly, he plays two opposite roles, Guillaume and his mother. Treading off the beaten track, it is an ingenious counter-coming-out story of an effeminate boy Guillaume, who is assumed by his family to be gay because of his outlandish deportment, being lackadaisical in sports and the accurate mimicry of his mother's intonation, all the way he is trying to comply with her expectation, to love men like a girl. Guillaume learns how to dance like a girl, enrolls in different all-male boarding schools, observes girls' unique comportment, the way of how they utter, nurtures a crush on the handsome jock, dodges military service, arranges sorties to gay club, to experience sex, after all the stereotyped attempts to be a normal gay, he meets the love of his life, Amandine, a genuine girl. The film opens as a live premiere of a monologue play by Guillaume, who farcically recounts his autobiographic anecdotes and intermittently mama pops up to conduct the make-believe conversations with him, everything is saturated with uplifting vivacity and hilarious skits, never too lewd or offensive, Götz Otto and Diane Kruger's cameos as a beefy masseur and an enema nurse are sidesplitting. Also the mockeries of professional psychiatrists are sterling bursting points. All in all, underscored by Wagner's magnificent Tannhauser Overture, Guillaume accomplishes his rite-of-passage by overcoming his fear of horse, and finally he understands who he is, and the last confession is to come out to be straight, feminine surely, but he is a heterosexual man who loves woman. No melancholy, it is an out-and-out fine piece of French comedy, Guillaume is daring enough to take on both challenging characters, a young man half his age, and a middle-aged woman with a reserved caricature of frigidity and supremacy. He somehow pulls off both roles, with admirable talent of imitation to be wacky and sincere at the same time, it is not only a boy's path of knowing his true id, it is also an inconspicuous ode to a mother's profound attachment to her son, it may be overbearing, but the ethos of unconditional support is universally appealing.