"Laurence Anyways" is a formidable display of French Canadian director Xavier Dolan's prodigious talents, but also a case study of a young talent still finding his way to greatness.He'll get there one day, soon, but this film doesn't quite do it.

Lushly romantic and daringly original.

It's all too much, really, including its 21/2-hour-plus running time. But it's also engrossing, an ultimately tender story of a transsexual's transformation over 10 years and its effect on him and the people around him.

It is a beautiful and daring French-language film about the enduring power of love that trespasses the boundaries of societal conventions.