Normal is about Roy Applewood, who then becomes Ruth Applewood. Early on in the film Roy expresses to his wife Irma that he has always desired to live as a female. The emotional turmoil that this puts Irma through is very profound, and she struggles to accept her husband's change of lifestyle. She even goes as far as to nearly commit adultery against Roy/Ruth through her emotional turmoil. A particular issue in the film is their son's feelings of awkwardness regarding Roy's transformation. The family is weakened and strengthened by the following turn of events. The film depicts how the couple works though this issue together, and the strength of the bond of family and marriage.One thing that should be noted is that the overall feeling of the film is very bland. All characters are very old (no offense to anyone,) dialogue becomes very heavy/boring, cinematography is flat, and the overall pace of the film is very slow. Since the story is unconventional, and the pace of the story is very slow, the film would have been aided by having more artistic film-making/experimental shots. But unfortunately since the film was produced by HBO films, we already know that we will not get anything artistic, but simply something which is trying to appeal to sexually repressed older/married people. HBO is a mid-life crisis exploitation channel, and this film demonstrates that clearly.On a positive note, the film could have significant meaning particularly for someone who is married and has had any sort of transgender feelings.

The storyline of Normal is innovative, and it is certainly a good film. The acting is fantastic, so I could enjoy watching the film. I think this film is different from other genre's film since acting is vivid and the storyline is unique. Although the issue in the film is a little heavy, some of the scenes in the film use a lighter way to portray it. The way of how Ruth tells his co-worker that he is going do the sex operation is amusing; therefore, mood of the film is consider not too heavy. Also, the make- up and costumes of Ruth is very natural for me. Ruth might be considering as transvestite before doing the sex-change operation; however, Ruth's make- up and costume is not too exaggerated. As a result, the film deserved the Emmy Award (Make Up). In my opinion, the theme of the film is love, and people can overcome many difficult situations by the power of love. Also, family stands an extremely important influence in everyone's life. Irma's love and support for Ruth illustrates love can actually overcome the difficulties in your life. I think this film is appealing to everyone since the mood in the film is light.

Tom Wilkinson has been hiding a very big secret from the world. Husband and father, during a marriage counseling visit with his local pastor, he comes out with the fact that inside he feels he was born a woman. That comes as a big shock to his wife of 25 years, Jessica Lange, and their minister, Randall Arney.This revelation is quite a blockbuster for everyone all around. These are blue collar people, not terribly sophisticated and not well read into the world of transgender. Still most try to cope as best they can.Tom Wilkinson and Jessica Lange give a pair of beautifully matched performances in Normal. Wilkinson is a decent man, a good husband and father, a good provider, who can't keep up the pretense any more. He starts to transition into a woman, but stays at home to be the parent to young Hayden Panettiere who is just entering puberty. In fact with the estrogen treatments that Wilkinson is taking is almost like him going through puberty a second time with his own daughter.Lange is the housewife and mother, she does not in fact work, but during the course of the film does take a job for her own income. Her reaction is to castigate Wilkinson, but also to blame herself and in fact her pastor says something like that to her. His only solution is to come up with some scripture from Ephesians that he says covers the situation. Something about emasculating her man.Arney is an interesting character, transgender is not something taught at the seminary. He's trying to figure it out, but can only think and operate from a very narrow framework. Eventually Wilkinson and Lange leave the church, a most gut wrenching experience for both since they are sincere Christians. The key scene in this film is during a family reunion at Thanksgiving when Wilkinson's father, who's suffering from the beginnings of Alzheimer's. There is a deep focus shot of Wilkinson in the foreground as dad, Richard Bull, is talking about how as a kid with five daughters he was worried about having an effeminate son when he caught him trying on his mother's clothes. Bull relates he beat his son to get the effeminacy out of him.. The shot then switches to a closeup of Lange and it's worth more than ten pages of dialog as she now knows this is not either some whim of her husband's nor anything that is her fault. Excellent camera work and acting, especially for a TV movie.Although they are married and stay married, my guess is that at some point Wilkinson and Lange will part amicably. During the film in fact she does begin an affair with her husband's boss, Clancy Brown. My guess is that though she does love Wilkinson very much, Lange will miss the physical intimacy of marriage.Someone did some good research into transgender issues. There is a brief scene with Wilkinson trying to talk in a higher register now that he's transitioning. One thing I've learned from transgender friends is that one's vocal cords are set for life in puberty when one is male. There are vocal techniques to talk lower, but they have to be learned and presumably Wilkinson will learn them. People who are born female will have their vocal cords thicken with the testosterone treatmentThere are very few people that out and out hate the man for transitioning to female. He does get some hate graffiti on his truck and he does get into a fight with one of his co-workers. Mostly they just can't understand. Interesting that Hayden Panettiere reports no problems in school with peers over her dad. It's sometimes the case that the young are the most tolerant indeed.Normal is a sensitive treatment of transgender issues with some fine performances and a good story with no real ending in sight for this family.

There are no words... As you watch this complex chef d'oeuvre, you'll find it easy to judge and point the finger like everyone else around "Ruth". Then you'll realize the movie isn't about him, it's about his wife. You'll see that finger come back to you pretty quickly and the judgments will stay put as you try to imagine how you would react, cope and live your life if this happened to you.Jessica Lange has come a long way since King Kong. No longer the sexpot counterpart of Jack Nicholson, she holds her own opposite Tom Wilkinson and really shows us she has only gotten better since her fantastic portrayal of Frances Farmer in "Frances"