Movie Review: ‘The Danish Girl’

The story of Lili Elbe, one of the first known patients to undergo sexual reassignment surgery, was never going to be an easy one to bring to the screen. Because her life is inspirational and her struggle against internal, medical and social boundaries is compelling, casting the right person to play her was the key to telling her unlikely story.

In Eddie Redmayne, Tom Hooper’s new movie “The Danish Girl” found the perfect fit.

In 1920s Copenhagen, successful Danish landscape painter Einar Wegener (Redmayne) shows off his latest works at an exhibition. He is ably supported by his beautiful wife Gerda (Alicia Vikander), herself a struggling portrait artist looking for the right muse. When a ballerina friend of the Wegeners is late to one of Gerda’s sittings, Gerda asks Einar to sit for her instead and slip on a pair of silk stockings and bejewelled dancing shoes and hold a frilly dress to his chest.

As Einar gently strokes the lace folds, he gets a rush of adrenaline, his heart rate quickens and his nostrils dilate. Einar’s excitement is the first hint the audience gets that he identifies with another gender. He feels he should have been born Lili, not Einar.

At the center of film is a captivating performance by Redmayne. He subtly portrays Einar’s indecision and questioning of who he really is with wistful facial expressions and delicate hand movements.

Every time he walks through the backstage of a theater he runs his hands along the rows of dresses, feeling the different fabrics and textures. And when he gazes at a ballet rehearsal from above, his look is one of longing.

After his 2015 Oscar-winning turn as Professor Stephen Hawking in “The Theory of Everything,” Redmayne is sure to be nominated again this year. When I watched him on screen last year, I often forgot I was seeing an actor – the life of the real Stephen Hawking was playing out in front of me. Even though his performance in “The Danish Girl” is not quite all-encompassing, Redmayne’s portrayal of Lili is incredibly believable.

His performance is more than matched by that of Vikander as the fiercely loving, boisterous Gerda. While Lili’s struggle takes center stage, Gerda’s battle to come to terms with the situation is just as difficult to watch.

Vikander somehow manages to portray all the unimaginable emotions of losing a husband to give a woman her freedom. She masterfully captures Gerda’s indecision, wavering between the selfish desire to keep her husband and the selfless act of letting Lili be herself.

Despite captivating central performances, “The Danish Girl” is a biopic which feels slightly too manufactured to produce the raw emotion it tries to evoke. Whether it’s an idyllic Danish quayside lined with yellow-washed houses or a glamorous Parisian art salon, the film’s settings are like a painting, which, although appropriate on the surface, in fact distract from Lili’s story.

The last half-hour of “The Danish Girl” plays out as a series of life-threatening operations and overplayed bedside scenes which, although necessary to the plot, deflate the heightened level of suspense and emotional drama. Scenes such as Lili kissing another man for the first time while Gerda looks on in anger and disbelief build up tension, only for it to be partially dented by too many teary farewells and inspirational words towards the end of the film.

Ultimately, however, the emotional and personal struggles provide the most impact. Lili Elbe’s story is one which few people will have heard before and one which few people will forget. She was a pivotal member in the transgender moment, a brave pioneer willing to risk rarely performed operations in order to be who she was meant to be. “The Danish Girl” is a beautiful if formulaic portrayal of her life that gives her the tribute and recognition she deserves.

– William Thorne