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How entertaining? ★★★☆☆
Thought provoking? ★★☆☆☆ 13 October 2015
A movie review of THE DANISH GIRL.Seen at the Toronto International Film Festival 2015. (For more information, click here.)
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“He’s only ever had eyes for one woman,” Oola Paulson (Amber Heard)
Eddie Redmayne guns for his second acting Oscar in a row. While this jury is out on whether he deserved it for THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING, those who believe the win was merited will likely be impressed again. These two films share a core similarity: A love story used to illustrate something outside of the general public’s everyday. THEORY’s kernel was high level physics, and THE DANISH GIRL concerns transgender transformation coinciding with the surgery’s infancy.
Eddie Redmayne guns for his second acting Oscar in a row. While this jury is out on whether he deserved it for THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING, those who believe the win was merited will likely be impressed again. These two films share a core similarity: A love story used to illustrate something outside of the general public’s everyday. THEORY’s kernel was high level physics, and THE DANISH GIRL concerns transgender transformation coinciding with the surgery’s infancy.
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If you prefer the ironed out and simple, then there is satisfaction to be had in both. However, those that seek to delve into the meat of what is not in their sphere, these movies are profoundly lacking. Really delving into what was so trailblazing about Stephen Hawking’s work was absent; and here the psychology of what makes someone feel they were born into the wrong body is wanting. One feels patronised to a certain degree that potential audience intelligence and empathy is not regarded highly.
What does rise to the surface are the notions of romance, and by the conclusion you cannot but be swept along by the emotion (though the last shot is absolutely cringe). Most love stories in cinema focus on the arduous journey to meeting the - quote-unquote – one. What elevates THE DANISH GIRL is the acknowledgement that there may be a few ones in your life, depending on where you, and that the hard part is not actually meeting but sustaining a deep connection as two people evolve. The evolution here is literal as well as metaphorical.
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Celebrated artist couple, Einar Wegener (Redmayne) and Gerda (Alicia Vikander), are first encountered at a party of the great and the good in 1926 Copenhagen. Gerda is in her lauded landscape painter husband’s shadow (which will change). Her portraits have not found acclaim. Their mutual love and lust is evinced charmingly. (Obviously, it helps that they are both so good-looking.)
A commission to paint ballerina pal Oola, and her absence one afternoon for a sitting, has Gerda request Einar to take her place holding a dress and wearing stockings. Portrayed as a catalyst, though later denied as to what was always there, Einar’s transition to a woman begins. A new persona, Lili Elbe, emerges. At a ball, the Wegeners play a game where Einar goes as his own faux cousin Lili. Turning heads, Einar/Lili, draws admiring glances from the gents; in particular Henrik (Ben Whishaw), who seems particularly sensitive to the world around him – is he the only stranger who sees through the disguise? More of his character would have been welcome.
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Opening his mind to who he really is, Einar decides to find a way of becoming Lili permanently. Not delving into the whys and wherefores, because there is a myriad of factors as to who we are, but still without some depth, Einar/Lili comes across as solipsistic. Beyond the theme of being true to your self, Gerda’s understanding, loyalty and steadfastness really moves. Further enlivening the tone comes in the form of a forward-thinking surgeon Professor Warnekros (Sebastian Koch) and a wonderfully empathetic friend, Hans Axgil (Matthias Schoenaerts) – “I’ve only really liked a handful of people in my life, and you are two of them.” (A lovely line.)
Letting the side down again is journeyman director Tom Hooper. (His television mini-series JOHN ADAMS is starting to look to be an aberration.) The massively overrated TV-movie-of-the-week THE KING’S SPEECH and the leaden LES MISERABLES did not prove to be a fertile practice ground. The imagery of THE DANISH GIRL is repetitive and the visuals bland. In skilled hands, the direction and colour scheme could have reflected character development.
On a side note, it is interesting how transgender stories and characters have recently started to enter the mainstream en masse:
- 52 TUESDAYS,
- THE NEW GIRLFRIEND,
- ABOUT RAY, and
- TV shows ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK and SENSE8.
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