Tilda Cobham-Hervey, right, and Imogen Archer in 52 Tuesdays (Kino Lorber)

Prior to filming, director Sophie Hyde and screenwriter Matthew Cormack set specific ground rules for the making of their movie. Among them were that the filming could only take place on consecutive Tuesdays over the course of a year; the story would have to be fluid, based on the results of each week’s filming; and all of the actors had to be non-professionals. This technique lends a unique authenticity to the evolution of both the characters and the story.

Sixteen-year-old Billie (Tilda Cobham-Hervey) always had what she thought was a close relationship with her mother, filled with intimate conversations that made Billie feel as if her mother respected her much as she would an adult friend. But Jane (Del Herbert-Jane), or James as he now prefers to be called, has failed to tell his daughter that he is preparing for a sex change and will be asking Billie to move in with her biological father during the lengthy transformation. When James unwittingly reveals the plan, Billie struggles to keep her anger in check, and she attempts to be supportive by agreeing to meet with James just once a week, every Tuesday for a year to spend some brief one-on-one, quality time together. Caught up in his own emotional turmoil, James is unaware that he has just set his daughter’s life adrift.

Each Tuesday visit is preceded by a brief flash of footage from an actual news story from that date (the civil unrest in Syria and Libya, the expanding crack in the ice shelf in Antarctica), a metaphor for the way in which reality has suddenly infiltrated the safe haven of Billie’s world. Feeling as if everything she thought she knew is no longer true, the teen no longer has any idea of her own personal identity, and the relationship she had with her mother now seems invalid. During the course of the year, she establishes a relationship with Josh (Sam Althuizen) and Jasmin (Imogen Archer), both seniors at her school, and they begin to meet weekly to role play and explore sexual preferences. Just as James videotapes the progression of his gender transformation, Billie documents the changes that she’s undergoing by videotaping her experiences with Josh and Jasmin.

James’s reluctance to talk openly with his daughter about certain details of his life and Billie’s secret and cherished explorations of sex serve to draw a wedge between them that threatens to destroy what’s left of their relationship. The discovery of Billie’s videotapes and her refusal to destroy them despite the danger they pose to her and her friends could be its death knell.

It is here that the carefully cultivated authenticity of the film disintegrates. In order to save the relationship at the last minute, Hyde and Cormack insert a timely family tragedy into the story, and just the right words are spoken to make Billie realize the error of her wayward and stubborn ways. It is too tidy a conclusion when compared to the raw honesty of the story up to that point. Still, it is a minor shortcoming in a film that, otherwise, successfully tackles this complicated topic.

In the United States, this film’s primary audience will likely be the LGBT community, but, despite its overarching theme of gender identity, the real point of this story can be appreciated by anyone open-minded enough not to cringe at the graphic reality of its content. James could be anyone, especially any parent who has ever thought they could make a drastic change in life without significantly impacting the lives of everyone connected to him/her, or who has failed to take ownership of the fallout that results from such a decision. The question that resonates throughout this story is “Are you living an authentic life?” However, the lesson could be said to be, think long and hard about the consequences first.