‘3 Generations' trans dramedy has good intentions

When we first meet Ray, his mind is made up. He sits in a doctor's office, his mother and grandmother nearby, while a physician calmly explains the changes that will result from testosterone therapy.

Despite having a girl's body, Ray has lived as a boy for years, and testosterone represents, for him, the beginning of the end to his gender dysphoria. The dramatic comedy “3 Generations” follows Ray and his family through the complications of this decision.

This could have been the setup for an affecting, modern coming-of-age drama, except that director Gaby Dellal inexplicably shifts focus to Ray's mother instead.

The cumulative effect is closer to a didactic after-school special for troubled parents.

Elle Fanning convincingly plays Ray, in both performance and appearance, wearing clothes in a bigger size to hide anatomy and conveying the mannerisms of an adolescent who is both arrogant and vulnerable. Naomi Watts is Ray's mother, Maggie, a frayed bundle of nerves.

Since Ray is a minor - and both parents must consent the hormone procedure - Maggie seeks out Ray's estranged father.

There is added tension from Ray's lesbian grandmother, Dolly (Susan Sarandon), who is less certain that Ray is ready for so irrevocable a decision, suggesting that he may one day change his mind.

At the same time, she and her longtime partner, Frances (Linda Emond), want to be supportive.

When Maggie finally tracks down Ray's father, old wounds get in the way of a simple signature.

Meanwhile, Ray grows increasingly desperate, as he wants to start attending a new school without the baggage of his transition.

Dellal (who wrote the screenplay with Nikole Beckwith) includes moments of clear specificity: Ray and Maggie live with Dolly in a Manhattan walk-up; the way each character heaves at the top of the stairs serves as a barometer for their mental state.

Ray films himself on his skateboard, with the smartphone footage serving as a metaphor for someone who yearns for movement.

In one wry, shrewdly written scene, Maggie collapses on the floor, suggesting one crisis to Dolly - and a completely different one to Frances.

Parts of “3 Generations” are meant as a comedy, thanks to Sarandon's well-observed performance: Dolly is casually sardonic, an experienced woman who would rather amuse herself than help her family.

There is a real depth of feeling underneath Dolly's boozy exterior, and Sarandon eases into motherly concern, without losing her character's essential nature.

The problems with “3 Generations” arise about the time when Maggie visits Ray's father, played by Tate Donovan as a confused and arrogant man going through the typical outrage of the absent parent.

That's not necessarily a bad thing, but the filmmakers reserve most of the dramatic dialogue for Maggie, who is unresolved about her own past. At 11/2 hours, this is already an economical film, yet there are at least four scenes in which characters drop in on one another, leading to one painful admission after another.

That's lazy storytelling, made all the more irksome as “3 Generations” turns its focus away from its original subject.

The videos that Ray is shooting, for instance, ostensibly for a multimedia project, are visually intriguing but have no real payoff.

Including them in the film feels like Dallal's effort to articulate Ray's identity - an identity otherwise given short shrift - through fragmentary montage. By the film's end, Ray is less a character than a catalyst.

“3 Generations” starts with a unique and intimate point of view, only to become yet another indie drama about the difficulties of motherhood.

As if to underscore that point, Ray says to Maggie, near the end, “I am proud of you,” as the camera lingers lovingly on Watts's face.

An earlier version of the film was titled “About Ray,” but it was pulled and recut, three days before its scheduled 2015 release.

That name wouldn't work for this version, and yet a deeper exploration of Ray's inner life - a life acutely felt and ultimately triumphant - would have been far more rewarding than the film we got.