Alex (Efron) is a 15-year-old hermaphrodite forced to make a decision about her sex. Her mother has invited a surgeon friend Ramiro (Palacios) and his family, including his teenage son Alvaro (Piroyansky), to their remote seafront house to provide Efron with advice.

Her father Kraken (Darin) quietly bristles at his wife’s decision, having fled the big city to avoid interference by well-meaning know-nothings or rubbernecking gawkers.

Alex meanwhile forms an unusual relationship with the fey Alvaro, who is clearly having sexuality issues of his own.

As a director, Puenzo cannot resist sledgehammer symbolism (fish or reptiles are omnipresent, sausages and carrots get sliced in close-up), conversations brim with double-meanings, and the plot blueprint deviates little from disease-of-the-week TV movies.

Where the film scores is in the first class performances Puenzo elicits from his cast, particularly Efron’s nuanced and complex turn as the clued-up yet screwed-up Alex, and Darin as her understanding, strong-willed father.

A bizarrely touching love scene with Alex and Alvaro, an uncomfortable look through Alex’s sketch book diary and a gentle scene with another intersexed man also mark the director as one to watch.

Apart from a humiliating assault the film resists Boys Don’t Cry melodrama or Crying Game camp, and never threatens to teeter over into horror movie hysteria.

Far from perfect, but a refreshing alternative to the candy-coloured confectionery masquerading as most coming-of-age flicks.

Rob Daniel