A Perfectly Normal Family Review

It's a safe and predictable life For Emma (Kaya Toft Lholt) as the youngest child in middle-class Danish family that includes dad, mom as well as an older sibling. There's football practice in the evening after school and takeaway pizza for treats. The whole family is at its proper place. The first sign that something is not right in this regular family unit is Thomas (Mikkel Boe Folsgaard) breaking into tears in a centre for puppy adoption. In the middle of a meal and a glass of wine, his spouse Helle (Neel Ronholt) is furious when she tells her children about the changes in their lives and the upcoming divorce. Emma along with Caroline (Rigmor Runthe) appear to be oblivious to any previous domestic conflict this is not plausible considering Thomas is on hormone therapy and then a couple of scenes later, he is appearing at group therapy as Agnete wearing an elegant skirt and flowing hair and a smoky eye.

Thomas/Agnete is played by male who is cis, making an opportunity missed to get a trans woman to bring the gravitas of real-life experiences to the role.

Emma is caught in between being as welcoming as her big sister who she admires and also being too inexperienced to handle any disruptions to her normality. Kaya Toft Loholt is a delight as a squirmingand quiet presence, struggling with her growing pains and the relationship she has with her father. Malou Reymann's film sometimes cuts through her stress with broad comedy beats, for instance, when Caroline lets open-eyed Emma be aware that Agnete is tired of dilating her vagina.

Thomas/Agnete's character is played by a trans male character (Mikkel Boe Folsgaard) However, for the majority of the show's runtime, we're watching Agnete instead of Thomas and this is an opportunity missed to have transwoman bring the weight of her own experience into the character. Folsgaard is a compelling psychotic to the parental side that characterizes him, but physically portrays Agnete as a drag performer with an over-emphasis on his manner of speaking.

The script does not deal with the enormity of the transition and is partially due to the fact that the writer has decided to present this story from Emma's erratic eyes, however the script becomes increasingly difficult to follow as characters aren't developed and the emotional stakes aren't met. Because Agnete is a character with two dimensions that seems to go through an extraordinary psychological and medical process without a hint of anxiety. Reymann has played out her own experiences of being a daughter of a man who went through a transition in her early years. The biographical link is awe-inspiring considering how light and unreliable the whole tale can end up feeling.