Teena Brandon spent the last months of her life posing as a man in Falls City, Neb. where she courted unwitting girlfriends, bumper surfed with her buddies and lied about every aspect of her life. When the truth was uncovered about Brandon's gender, however, she was raped and murdered by the very friends she had trusted. Numerous critics have cited Swank's physical transformation as the key to her powerful performance, claiming that her masculine metamorphosis is uncanny. This is not the case.
Swank never achieves a convincing level of masculinity.
Her movements are too feminine, her mannerisms are too forced and her smile constantly betrays a girlish coquetry that is foreign to men. But her performance is not about becoming male. Swank succeeds at the almost impossible task of making an unsavory character sympathetic. Teena Brandon was indisputably unethical. She was a car thief, a forger and an accomplished liar who acted unconscionably toward every woman she fell in love with, engaging in sexual activity without ever confessing the reality of her gender.