Opening Day: 13 September 2007

Synopsis:

When a lost memory returns, will love survive? That is the question asked in 'Me...Myself', where actor, Ananda Everingham (Shutter), plays a transvestite who loses his memory in a serious accident and ends up falling in love...with a girl.

Movie Review:

As the age-old adage goes: “It’s hard to find a good man” – not to speak of one who cooks, cleans and is gentle, sweet and sensitive to your every need (“No, you don’t look fat in that dress”). Such is the good fortune of Oom (newcomer Chayanan Manomaisantiphab), who knocks down a passerby by accident and has to take him into her house while he recuperates. Initially a tiresome burden who unwittingly oversteps his boundaries every step of the way, Tan (Ananda Everingham of “Shutter” fame) manages to guilelessly win his way into the hearts and home of Oom and her nephew Ohm.

However, their picture of family idyll quickly vanishes as Tan recovers his lost memories and with it, remnants of his previous life as star transvestite dancer “Tanya” of a cabaret show, who had been involved in a relationship with a married man with kids. If his status as an international gay icon has not been firmly established already, this movie should do the trick for Everingham, with his finely-honed acting skills and a to-die-for Greek god of a body on full display in this flick.

Reputed to have studied drag queens for his character in the movie, Everingham puts up a convincingly subtle and sensitive display of an effeminate man who had been brought up to think he looked better in a skirt, without having to resort to over-the-top histronics than seems to plague most actors when faced with such an ambiguous role. What’s hilarious was the fact that it was apparent that certain members of the audience probably couldn’t care less about Everingham’s Oscar-worthy thespian skills – the clearly discernable intakes of breath and flurry of action every time his incredibly lithe, panther-like body makes an appearance sans shirt (which was often enough), was probably worth the price of the ticket twice over.

With the tone of the movie quickly set and the sort of plot only the Thais can convincingly come up with, rookie director Pongpat Wachirabanjon helms this pleasing if somewhat inconsistent effort on a love story gone awry, questioning deep-seated conventions along the way while managing to subtly tug at audiences’ heart-strings.

However, the movie seems to lose steam after the shocking discovery of Tan’s homosexual past, with the various characters meandering about aimlessly through their lives (perhaps intentionally) and no discernible glue to bind the structure together. Maybe it was the intention here to portray the fact that families don’t have to follow stereotype to remain happy together, but if so, many other questions, such as whether or not Oom’s and Tan’s love was genuine and not based on friendship and loneliness rather than mutual attraction, were never answered.

Ending on a frustratingly open-ended note, the movie seems to flail under its attempts to address the more complex questions it throws up in the course of the flick. While the implication that nurture trumps nature would certainly raise an outcry in homosexual communities worldwide, Me…Myself doesn’t even attempt to deal with whether or not Tan is ready to question his sexuality or feelings for Oom, preferring instead to conclude with a lame attempt at feeling good which left a nasty aftertaste in this reviewer’s mouth.

Movie Rating:

Review by Ninart Lui