Boy Meets Girl

Boy Meets Girl takes place in a small, American town. The lead character is Ricky, a young trans woman. During the beginning of the film, Ricky is bemoaning to her best friend Robbie that she’s tired of men disappointing her in the romance department and maybe she should try girls. Enter Francesca. Francesca is a beautiful, rich debutante with a fiance in the military overseas. Ricky and Francesca become fast friends and both women experiment with their sexuality together. However, Francesca introducing Ricky into her life stirs up problems with her fiance and family. Additionally, Ricky and Francesca’s relationship brings up some hidden feelings of Robbie’s towards Ricky.

I give the movie major props for its depicted of a trans character. Firstly, she’s played by a trans actress. This was Michelle Hendley’s first acting role. And while she has room to grow as an actress, her performance is way better than any performance they could’ve gotten from a cis man. Within the film, it’s cool that Ricky is already comfortable with herself. Many trans narratives are about the process of realization, coming out and transitioning. Boy Meets Girl isn’t that. By the start of the film, Ricky has already been living as a woman for several years and her being trans isn’t the major source of conflict. There are more to trans narratives than coming out and transitioning. Indeed, it’s almost like trans people are people and can have narratives about romance and interpersonal connections and things other than feeling sad and uncomfortable in their skin.

In general, Boy Meets Girl is a movie that allows its trans character to have a personality beyond being trans. Ricky has baggage and dreams and an excellent, dry sense of humour. Sure, some of her jokes relate to her being trans but this is not offensive trans humour. It’s a trans person with a sense of humour who sometimes makes jokes relating to her experiences as a trans person. They’re also very funny jokes.

Admittedly, the film gets less funny as it goes along. Boy Meets Girl delves into some pretty heavy topics including transphobia, contemplation of suicide and just everything Francesca’s fiance says or does. The film isn’t fully equipped to deal with all these topics. The movie is only 90 minutes and wants to be farily lighthearted. Consequently, the resolution to these more serious aspects is somewhat unsatisfactory. Especially Francesca’s finace. He’s pretty shitty and the movie suggests that one open conversation between he and Francesca has solved everything. Poor Francesca. The movie sort of ignores her in the third act to focus on Ricky and Robbie’s relationship so she ends up back with her shitty fiance. As much as the movie ended their story on a note of hope, I don’t think that relationship is going to last or be a happy one long-term.

Boy Meets Girl does have a heterosexual endgame. Ricky and Robbie end up together as you could probably guess from the first scene or the title of the movie. While heterosexuality is never my preference, this was not a bad hetero love story. Ricky and Robbie have great chemistry. It’s incredibly sweet that Robbie has been friends with Ricky since they were kids and has always accepted and stood by her. I did honestly root for them to get together. My only problem with their relationship is that it wasn’t fully clear why they weren’t together already. But if they were together, we’d never have gotten Ricky’s two act experimentation with women and this film would not have been featured on my site.

Boy Meets Girl is an incredibly charming film, heterosexual endgame or no. There is a dearth of good trans films but Boy Meets Girl is one of them. This is a trans film with a trans actor that has a happy ending. In addition to its success in representation, Boy Meets Girl is just a good film. It’s funny, charming and romantic.

Overall rating 7/10

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