Danish Girl

"He's comfortable in his own skin," is usually seen as a compliment. It means that the person in question knows who he (or she) is and is content with that sense of identity. I dare speculate that it's a condition to which we all aspire. Unfortunately, many people around the world lack that inner peace because of a question of gender identity. Regardless of what others think about such an existential situation, people who feel uncomfortable with the biology with which they were born often suffer greatly over this conflict within their hearts and minds. They cannot be comfortable in their own skin, because they don't feel that their skin is really theirs. Before the somewhat more enlightened times of the 21st century, people who identified with a gender other than that to which biology assigned them suffered even more than some do today. In ages past, those people had little opportunity to make changes that would make themselves look on the outside as they felt on the inside. "The Danish Girl" (R, 2:00) is one such story.

Inspired by the true story of early 20th century married Danish painters Einar and Gerda Wegener, like David Ebershoff's 2000 book on which it's based, "The Danish Girl" is a fictionalized account of Einar's physical transition to Lili Elbe. Neither the book nor Lucinda Coxon's screenplay makes any claim to absolute historical accuracy. This story changes many of the facts for dramatic purposes. The real-life situation of Lili and Gerda's life was much more complicated than we see on screen. The result is a film that tells a simple story in a way that elicits empathy for the protagonists and enlightens the audience.

Oscar winner Eddie Redmayne plays Einar/Lili, and Alicia Vikander, his wife, Gerda. The couple lives in a large apartment in Copenhagen, Denmark, where they both make a living painting. At first, Einar's landscapes are more in demand and more respected than Gerda's portraits. One day when Gerda was in a hurry to finish a portrait of their mutual friend and ballerina, Oola (Amber Heard), Gerda asks Einar to stand in as a model by putting on Oola's stockings and heels and holding up Oola's dress in front of him. Although the scene is played with a combination of humor and awkwardness, it's obvious that Einar likes the clothes. He starts trying on his wife's clothes which gives birth to an idea. Gerda is a bit conflicted, but being the open-minded person she is, she suggests that her husband dress up as a woman to attend an art world function that he had been trying to avoid. And just like that, Lili is born.

The thing is that Einar had always felt like a female and being Lili was the first opportunity that he had really had to express what he felt was his true gender. Einar wears women's clothes and make-up more and more often, both at home and out in public. Lili even begins secretly seeing a local man named Henrik (Ben Whishaw). Gerda is understandably upset by all this, but she never criticizes her husband's inner turmoil or its outward manifestations. She wants to understand, and the more she does, the more she mourns her marriage, which she sees as slipping away. However, as all this is happening, her art career begins to take off. She paints Lili more and more, in fashionable clothes and in little or no clothes. As Gerda's style develops, increasing demand for her paintings soon leads the couple to move to Paris.

In Paris, Lili blossoms as a person, even as she seeks a more permanent solution to her feeling that her biology doesn't match her identity. She sees doctors whose diagnoses are wide-ranging, but are mainly focused on Einar/Lili having some sort of mental deficiency. Hans Axgil (Matthias Schoenarts), a childhood friend of Einar, tries to help, but he can do little more than offer moral support to the couple. Finally, Lili and Gerda find a possible solution in the person of German doctor Kurt Warnekros (Sebastian Koch). Dr. Warnekros offers to perform practically unprecedented sex reassignment surgery on Lili.

"The Danish Girl" is a very sensitive portrayal of a very tumultuous experience in the lives of two real people. Whether you sympathize with the situation of the two main characters or not, you're likely to empathize with them as people. While presenting a story about the controversial topic of gender identity, Oscar-winning director Tom Hooper also tells a very human story within the framework of the movie's plot. At its core, this is a tale of love and loss, of tolerance and devotion, of… feeling comfortable in one's own skin. Although some Movie Fans may find some of the situations, images and the brief but graphic nudity (both female and male) to be disturbing, and the plot does drag at times, one of the main reasons to see this movie is for the award-worthy performances by the two leads. With impressive emotional range and depth, both Redmayne and Vikander make this story surprisingly rich and relatable. Hooper draws even more focus (literally) to the characters' feelings by choosing especially significant moments to bring his camera in very close for a tight focus on the characters' faces, while allowing everything beyond their necks to go out of focus. "The Danish Girl" deserves credit for its honesty, its emotional power and its succinct presentation of a very complicated story. However, some of the changes in the story seem designed to increase the impact of the story, a move I would call emotionally manipulative. For that and other reasons, I just wish that this otherwise excellent film had been more historically accurate. "B"

I honestly found this movie very touching and delicate. It is delicate in the way it treats difficult subjects as sexuality and the discovery of one's identity in an hostile period. The fact that it is a true story makes the whole movie even more involving.

I don't think the film is perfect - but the acting, cinematography, the screenplay are absolutely amazing. I especially loved the middle part - where all the characters try to find a way out of the problem and when for the first time they seem to be facing a fracture between them.

I thought it had a great power on people even though it doesn't seem to have had the effect I was expecting (at least during the premiere in Venice).

Eddie Redmayne hasn't had enough of his Oscar and I wish him all the best for 2016!

The story could have been very dramatic and deeply touching, as it is a true story of both the internal conflicts of a man and the deep love of a woman to her partner. Unfortunately the meticulous attention to image rather than screenplay (to me) resulted in a quite cold and un- engaging movie, where beautiful costumes, interiors and landscapes are the only highlights. I found that even the acting of the brilliant young Eddie Redmayne was not that good, as his constant smiles and shy blinking eyes after a while seem to be the only stratagem he has to portray such a complex character (and after the first dozen of them I couldn't stand it anymore). A more sophisticated psychological portrait of the main character and a more dramatic rendition of his/her troubled soul would have given more solidity to a movie which seems too superficial.

Because of the subject matter in The Danish Girl I wasn't sure this was going to be a film that I would particularly like but I need not have have worried because I thought this was a fascinating movie that justified it's plaudits. This is the story of Danish artist Einar Wegener (Eddie Redmayne) who realised that despite being born a man he is really a woman and that woman is called Lile. Although Redmayne will quite obviously get all the praise for his role as Lile but I think the outstanding performance of this film comes from Alicia Vikander who plays his wife. As an actor she is exposed unlike Redmayne who has the make up to hide behind. Instead of being about Lile this film for me is more about the love of his wife who will do anything to make her husband happy. Even if that means losing him. in the process.

The Danish Girl (2015)

*** (out of 4)

The semi true-story of painters Einar (Eddie Redmayne) and Gerda Wegener (Alicia Vikander), a married couple who find their lives changing when Einar dresses as a woman so Gerda can have someone to paint but it brings something out in him. Soon Einar is going around as the Lili character and soon decides that he's a woman on the inside.

THE DANISH GIRL is another beautiful looking film from Tom Hooper, the director best known for his Oscar-winner THE KING'S SPEECH. Like that film the director has no problem with the visual look of the film and Hooper certainly knows how to put you in the period setting. It also doesn't hurt that we've got some excellent performances and a rather interesting and conflicted love story.

I think the real draw here are the performances with Redmayne once again delivering a remarkable piece of work just a year after his Oscar win for THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING. A lot of actors have played male/female characters to perfection. In my mind the greatest was Dustin Hoffman in TOOTSIE but that there was a comedy whereas this here certainly isn't. It was really remarkable seeing how well Redmayne played both the male and female character and he was certainly believable as both. Whenever the Lili character was on screen you really did feel as if you were watching an actress and not just a man playing a female. Vikander is also excellent as the woman who finds the man she love slowly turning into someone else.

The film features some beautiful cinematography, a great music score and I also thought the screenplay was very good. The story itself drags a tad bit during the first portion but I think it asks a lot of really good questions about what love is and of course what one feels about who they really are. I thought the flow of the film was quite good and there's no question that it nails the costume design and sets. THE DANISH GIRL isn't a masterpiece but it's certainly a very good movie with some excellent performances.