Prodigal Sons

Leave It To Beaver - The McKerrows in Prodigal Sons
 
Time Investment: 86 min.
Return on Investment: 50 min.
 
The most dangerous subject a documentarian can choose is him or herself. Objectivity is naturally compromised and there’s a high risk of alienating those closest to you. What’s more, when looking into the metaphorical mirror it’s hard to differentiate one strand of your life from another. This is the problem that plagues Prodigal Sons (First Run Features), the debut effort from transgender filmmaker Kimberly Reed. At the outset, it appears Sons will recount Reed’s transformation from male to female as she returns to rural Montana for her 20th high school reunion. But as the story unfolds, we learn Reed’s  struggle is less with her classmates than with her adopted brother, Marc McKerrow, who was left emotionally and mentally unstable after a serious car accident in his early 20s. Marc’s outbursts have soured his relationship with Kim, their mother, Carol, and his own wife and child. Then we learn about Marc’s birth family—a surprise twist—and Sons veers into another direction.
 
It’s common for documentarians to start out focusing on one subject and then discover the real story is something else. But Sons switches topics so many times that we never get to connect deeply with any of them. Reed—a popular high school basketball star in her male guise and an attractive out lesbian in her female identity—hardly fits our preconceived stereotype of a trans woman. But there are too many ingredients in the pot. Thrown together, they make a half-baked meal that’s ultimately unsatisfying.