Docudrama about Slain Transgendered Teen

A review of the dramatized story of a transperson murdered by homophobic youth, A Girl Like Me: The Gwen Araujo Story.

Ruehl, in particular, is masterful, portraying a mother who comes to accept that her son Eddie wants and needs to live his life as a woman, and giving Gwen the same unconditional love she had given Eddie. Some of the best scenes come when Guerrero has to deal with the prejudices of her own traditional Latino family and the tensions they create. (The family eventually came to accept Gwen’s choice.)

The film does come up short on two levels, though: Too often, it gets dramatically heavy-handed, with portentous scenes that could have been more artfully crafted and with characters portrayed in black and white rather than shades of gray. More important, it fails to take advantage of this horrific story to get at larger truths about transgender youth and homophobia.

Lifetime’s film on Gwen Araujo exceeds expectations