Sometimes Frustrating But Always Fascinating

Rating: 8/10 (28 July 2005)

Meet Hans, an East Berlin teenager desperate to escape the communist block who undergoes a botched sex change operation in order to marry an American military man and flee to the free world. Now meet Hedwig, the rock-em-shock-em punk band leader into which Hans transforms himself when his American husband abandons him in the midwest. Embittered when the Berlin wall falls and furious when a later teenage-lover steals her music and becomes an arena-filling rock star, Hedwig now dogs the teenager's steps by staging a tour with her own band and following him from town to town.
John Cameron Mitchell, who co-wrote and starred in the New York show and who appears in the film as both director and star, mutes the more savage tones of the stage original in favor of pathos and a broader sense of the character's humanity; consequently, the film isn't really as far-out or edgy as it might seem and it lacks the sharp bite you might expect. The film also seems a bit unfocused, a bit unstructured, and at times I felt a bit frustrated by what it leads you to expect but never actually delivers. Even so, Mitchell and company (especially Miriam Shor), give some extremely interesting and often drop-dead funny performances, and the music performed by the band as it tours is first rate throughout.
Sadly, some viewers will reject the film without seeing it on the basis of subject matter alone--which would be a mistake. Often funny, often touching, and certainly thought-provoking, HEDWIG packs a solid punch by appealing to the untapped creativity in all of us and leads us to question our own internal sense of unity. The characters and ideas it presents linger in mind afterward, and while Hedwig and her angry inch aren't quite as knock-out as you could wish they're still fascinating.
The DVD release contains lots of extras, most notably a documentary (almost as long as the movie itself) that describes the creation of both stage show and film. The footage of the New York show is particularly fascinating. Recommended.
Gary F. Taylor, aka GFT, Amazon Reviewer