★★★★

A stunning, career-altering performance from Trace Lysette powers Monica, a slow-burn of a drama detailing a trans woman’s return to a community, mother, and family she tried to leave behind.

While pain exists in many frames of Monica, Lysette and director Andrea Pallaoro work with the emotions swirling around Monica’s decision to return to tend to her ailing mother Eugenia (Patricia Clarkson). Living in Los Angeles, she’s endured some form of a recent bad breakup and seems lost.

A phone call from her sister-in-law Laura (Emily Browning) sets in motion the events that draw Monica back to her midwestern home, where Eugenia is tended to by caregiver Leticia (Andrea Barraza) and, in shifts, by Laura and Monica’s brother Paul (Joshua Close).

As Monica cautiously returns to her family’s life, Paul cannot believe Monica’s appearance, having not seen her in years. Then there’s Eugenia, battling a brain tumor, simply doesn’t recognize her at all. This allows for the awkward tap dance of everyone knowing why Monica left, and wondering, without much dialogue, whether Eugenia needs to be informed who the newest member of her support team happens to be.

What makes Monica a powerful film is that these emotions and uncertain next steps are felt by us, as viewers, and seldom spoken. Other films typically utter every thought and every feeling out loud, through on-the-nose dialogue while failing to trust viewers to piece everything together. Though the film will move a bit slow for some viewers, there is no ambiguity to sort through. Like the main character’s experience, Monica takes time to unfold - Pallaoro’s film, co-written with Orlando Tirado, quite fantastic in how tentative moments become a strength in creating such an engrossing and compelling dramatic experience.

Lysette is tremendous, giving a richly-layered portrayal of a woman who has spent so much time and effort to become the person they are meant to be, yet fully aware that one more rejection from her family could potentially tear down every foundation she has built for herself. At first, her words are few and she is observing, not quite fearful, but certainly anxious, uncertain and on edge. Her recent baggage carries forward: she is lonely. Her voicemails to her ex are not received well and her desire to feel something from someone leads her to a country bar in the middle of somewhere.

While that subplot of chasing after a fling offers the film’s weakest elements, Monica lives and breathes with Lysette. There is a great supporting cast, heightened by Clarkson’s moving performance, but Lysette’s eyes and body language tell us everything. I also cannot recall the last time the simple gesture of being invited to participate in a family photo left such an impression on me.

Movies can often aim for inclusiveness and, even with good intentions, miss the mark or cheapen the story through tokenism or pandering. Refreshingly, Monica is a character with full agency. given ample space for Lysette to create a flawed, very real person. Being a trans woman may be Monica’s story, but it is not the whole story. And Monica is a movie that honors her existence, without judgment, while also allowing Lysette to craft one of the year’s most compelling characters with one of 2023’s finest performances.

Monica was screened as part of the 49th Seattle International Film Festival.