Movie review: The Danish Girl

Drama/ Biography

Rated – M

Duration –119mins

Release – Jan 2016

Director –Tom Hooper

Writer – David Ebershoff, Lucinda Coxon
 
Cast – Eddie Redmayne, Alicia Vikander, Amber Heard, Ben Whishaw

 
Mr Knight

I only had a mild interest coming into The Danish Girl. That interest being seeing Alicia Vikander again on the big screen! Set in Copenhagen, 1926, we are introduced to a young married couple, Gerda Wegener (Alicia Vikander) and Einar Wegener (Eddie Redmayne) who appear to be truly in love. Both successful artists, Einar being talented at landscapes and Gerda at portraits.

A short way into the movie, Gerda needs her husband to assist her in one of her latest art works and has Einar pose for her, wearing stockings, ladies heals and a white flowing dress draped over himself. Immediately you see Einar’s brain ticking and his body adjusting the feeling of being someone else.

Not long after the posing, both Gerda and Einar decide as a joke, to have Einar dress as a woman to a party, acting out to be Einar’s cousin, Lili. What seems like harmless fun to Gerda, turns out to be an awakening for Einar and soon he finds himself no longer comfortable in his own skin and Lili is his true self.

In no time at all Gerda realises she has opened Pandora’s Box and in doing so, destroys her marriage to Einar. As Einar slowly transforms into Lili more and more, Gerda does the only thing she knows best. She paints. A collection of Lili’s begins to form and those artworks quickly bring Gerda fame and with it Paris.

The story continues to slowly develop with Lili having some painful experiences with Doctors finding her sexuality to mean she is insane, and the general public being unaccepting. However, as I watched I found Lili in fact did receive a lot of support, from friends, old acquaintances and especially, which I couldn’t fathom, his wife Gerda.

Although Lili is the one finding herself and going through such massive change, it was Gerda who stuck by her the whole time. Always caring, supporting and never leaving her. I just couldn’t get it. All the while Gerda was slowly breaking inside. I felt more pity for her, than Lili.

The Danish Girl, was interesting, but the whole while I found Einar completely selfish. Not selfish because Einar shouldn’t be happy, but simply the way he treated his wife of seven years as he went through his transformation. I also found I didn’t feel as emotionally connected to Einar as I did Gerda. The trials and tribulations Einar came across as Lili, were few and far between and easily overcome, and I didn’t feel she had the challenges others may face in her shoes, especially in the 1920s.

All in all it was not bad but I didn’t feel emotionally drawn in. Well acted by both Eddie Redmayne and Alicia Vikander.

Mrs Knight

I was very curious about this one. There has been a lot of Oscar talk in regards to Eddie Redmayne winning for the second year in a row. Last year he won for his portrayal of Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything. Of course there has also been a lot of talk about this film given the subject matter. 2015 seemed to shine a spotlight on people who are transgender with everyone talking about Caitlyn Jenner, Cate McGregor and Laverne Cox. So the timing couldn’t have been better.

The Danish Girl is a biopic, set in the 1920’s, and based on the life of Einar Wenger (Eddie Redmayne), a Danish painter and his painter wife, Gerda (Alicia Vikander). They seem to be a happily married young couple, filled with laughter and passion. This slowly changes as Gerda encourages Einar to pose for her in stockings and heels so she can finish a painting. One thing leads to another and they decide he should dress as a woman at an event for a ‘bit of fun’. While we see glimpses of his fascination with women’s clothing prior, this is really the tipping point and each day following he becomes more and more himself, a woman named Lili. With this transition it puts a strain on their relationship as Gerda comes to terms with the fact that she has lost her husband.

The film is told from the point of view of Gerda, which I found interesting. It was clear the transition was hard for Lili, but Gerda was the one who had to come to terms with the ‘death’ of her husband. As Mr Knight said to me towards the end of the film, ‘Alicia Vikander should win an Oscar for Best Supporting Wife’ (she’s nominated for Best Supporting Actress). I couldn’t agree more. Alicia Vikander played this part brilliantly and I believed every minute. The same goes for Eddie Redmayne. A clear sign of great acting and a well-made film was how uncomfortable I felt at times. I actually found some scenes quite confronting.

I think this is an important story to tell as it promotes awareness and knowledge for the transgender community. The film was well made, but as I said it does have some confronting content so it may not be for everyone. Overall, I found it very interesting and it provoked a lot of different emotions as I followed her journey to becoming Lili.