From the can't-make-this-stuff-up department comes Kimberly Reed's unique documentary "Prodigal Sons," about a transgender woman (Reed herself) returning to her hometown of Helena, Mont., for her first post-op visit. Not that unusual until it's revealed that she's attending her high school class reunion -- the school where Kim, back then a strapping lad named Paul McKerrow, embodied an ideal of American manliness as the star quarterback.

Complicating matters is Kim's estranged relationship with her adopted brother, Marc, a talented but tortured man who was in the same graduating class as his sibling and has felt overshadowed ever since. It doesn't help that a terrible accident in Marc's 20s resulted in his having had a chunk of his brain removed, causing split-personality behaviors and wild, sometimes violent mood swings. There are times when it is hard to understand why Kim is willing to deal with her brother.

All that -- and then Marc discovers he is a missing link to Hollywood royalty, the grandson of Orson Welles and Rita Hayworth. Seriously.

This combination of amazing coincidences, sibling tensions and identity crises is a natural fit for the documentary form. Even if "Prodigal Sons" is ultimately more buildup than payoff, Reed is a nimble enough filmmaker to roll with unexpected developments and make poignant connections between her family's unremarkable past and its extraordinary, wrenching present. Also remarkable is the respectful, live-and-let-live attitude of fellow Montanans toward Kim, whose vibrancy and confidence make her a virtual advertisement for gender-reassignment surgery.



(86 minutes, not rated, Living Room Theaters) Grade: B



-- Stan Hall