Review: The Danish Girl
With numerous independent films and television series depicting nuanced and edgy tales of the transgender experience, perhaps the reserve and carefulness of The Danish Girl would seem too old-fashioned and behind the times. Based on David Ebershoff's fictionalised account of Lili Elbe, one of the first people to undergo sex assignment surgery, director Tom Hooper's film adaptation has all the hallmarks of the traditional prestige picture. That in itself should be cause for some celebration. The gloss may mask some flaws, but one should not deny that its subject matter is being given a very mainstream platform it otherwise may not have received.
Its release certainly is timely, given Bruce Jenner's well-publicised rebirth and reclaiming of his true identity as Caitlyn, but this is a project that has knocked about for a decade with various actresses like Charlize Theron, Gwyneth Paltrow and Marion Cotillard rumoured to play the role of Gerda Wegener, which is ultimately assumed by Alicia Vikander. Understandably, the role of Lili, who first begins the film as Einar, was far more difficult to cast. Timing is everything and, criticisms of cisgender casting aside, no one is more perfect for the part than Eddie Redmayne. The young actor, who had been doing mostly fine work, suddenly leapt to the next level last year, delivering a physically and emotionally impressive performance as Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything. Redmayne far surpasses that work in The Danish Girl, and it is not unlikely that he might receive a second and consecutive Best Actor Oscar (joining Spencer Tracy and Tom Hanks in that extremely elite group).
When we first meet Gerda and Einar, they are a happy couple that have been married for six years. She is a portrait artist whilst he is a landscape painter. Though Gerda has talent, her paintings are not as sellable as his. She needs to find the right subject matter. She unwittingly does when she asks Einar to stand in for a model who is late for a sitting. The touch of the stockings and dress against his skin awakens something mysterious yet familiar within Einar.
The sensation excites him and Einar posing as a woman inspires Gerda, whose paintings of Einar as Lili begin to attract attention. It seems a game at first when a naked Gerda unbuttons Einar's shirt to discover him wearing her chemise. It is still a game when she playfully suggests he dress up as Lili for a ball. But something happens when a young man named Henrik (Ben Whishaw) approaches Lili. Redmayne conducts this passage so beautifully - you can see Einar wondering if Henrik is aware that Lili is a guise, you can feel Einar's amazement that perhaps he is pulling off this masquerade, and you can pinpoint the precise moment when Einar disappears and Lili takes over.
When Gerda confronts Einar about his encounter with Henrik, he tries to explain that, for a moment, he was Lili. Lili doesn't exist, Gerda reminds him but she knows that something has changed and the act of losing her husband has begun. For a time, The Danish Girl resembles the most genteel horror movie with Gerda never knowing if it's Einar or Lili she'll find when she arrives home. Vikander skillfully conveys Gerda's conflict as she struggles to hold on to her husband as she knew him and adjust to the person he is becoming. She is nothing short of breathtaking during the moment she asks Lili if she can see her husband for just a while. "Can you get him?" she softly pleads.
The complications of Lili's return to her true self oscillate between the simplistic and the overly emphasised; and the tale's provocative gender politics (Gerda remarking how difficult it is for a man to "submit to the female gaze" or Lili insisting, "I want to be a woman, not a painter" to which Gerda points out that it is possible to be both) are presented as nuggets of intrigue rather than fully fleshed investigations. Yet one has to concede that it would take more than The Danish Girl or the critically acclaimed Amazon series Transparent or any of the past, present and future works to create a multi-dimensional exploration of the LGBT experience. For now, let the handsomely mounted, opulently rendered The Danish Girl serve as an introduction to the life of an extraordinary individual, one who paved the way, along with many others, for those to come out from the fringes and embrace their true selves.
The Danish Girl
Directed by: Tom Hooper
Written by: Lucinda Coxon; adapted from David Ebershoff's novel
Starring: Eddie Redmayne, Alicia Vikander, Matthias Schoenaerts, Amber Heard, Ben Whishaw, Sebastian Koch, Adrian Schiller
