Tomboy is one of those rare movies that can really present a moral tale in such a simple way and yet in such a complex, unbiased, multi-folded perspective. All the previous "girl pretending to be a boy", like Boys Don't Cry and others simply becomes minor achievements after you see Tomboy.
Many reviewers criticizes when the mother beats the child and tries to "fix things up" because they believe the director tries to soften the mother's guilt. And they're right. But they fail to see how this is what makes this movie stand out. All moral issues have centuries of history, identities, traditions... The beauty is not in making a movie to say "this is right" but to show how this complex problems are in fact dealt in the society and how they affect individuals.
Many reviewers criticizes when the mother beats the child and tries to "fix things up" because they believe the director tries to soften the mother's guilt. And they're right. But they fail to see how this is what makes this movie stand out. All moral issues have centuries of history, identities, traditions... The beauty is not in making a movie to say "this is right" but to show how this complex problems are in fact dealt in the society and how they affect individuals.