Based on a true story. One of the doctors who figured in the true story actually appears in this movie as himself.
The director is also a medical doctor, though you would never know from the movie series that made him famous (or from the animated movies that he made featuring Robin Williams in two separate roles each).
Where was I? Oh, the medical movie...
Six different actors played the title character. None are famous now. Four were boys. Transgender did not factor into the plot.
The title character was 14 when the movie was released. According to the plot, he should not have lived that long. He died in 2008 at the age of 30. His mother died eight years earlier.