TomBoy is a very touching film, especially to the LGBT community. It is by far one of the best foreign films I have seen. Close up shots dominate the film, but there are several long shots in the woods. The woods are seen as a fairy-tale kind of place. They are magical and somewhat forbidden. The naturalness of the woods is contaminated at the end with the dress. There is no background music during the film as there is in normal films, except when the Laure and Lisa are dancing in which case the music is actually playing. This provides a more realistic feel to the film making the audience better able to relate.
There is an underlying theme of fear. Laure is hidden inside the house ( which is representative of “the closet”), whereas “Mikael” is free to come and go as “he” pleases. Indoors represents femininity, for example, it is inside that Jeanne is super feminine, playing in her pink tutu, in the pink room. Women/femininity is confined to that indoor space. Outdoors represents masculinity; the boys are always playing outside. Lisa is the only girl to really go outside and once she does, she is silenced. When Lisa speaks and she is outside, she speaks in a small, quiet voice. In the beginning of the film, Laure is stuck inside, looking through bars on the window. This scene reinforces the theme that women are confined inside. Once Laure goes outside for the first time, it is there that she establishes the identity of “Mikael.”
The children are the redeeming factor of the film. Lisa comes to Laure’s home and asks Jeanne for “Mikael”. Once Lisa leaves, the audience can see Jeanne processing what has happened. Jeanne knows, understands, and still loves her sister, Laure.
At the end of the film, after “Mikael” has been outed, Lisa meets up to start over with “him.” The last scene is essentially a redo of the first scene, except Lisa does not assume Laure is the new boy who just moved in. Lisa still talks to her friend and accepts her in the end.
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