The Danish Girl

 3.5/4

Starring: Eddie Redmayne, Alicia Vikander, Matthias Schoenaerts, Ben Whishaw, Sebastian Koch

Rated R for Some Sexuality and Full Nudity

"The Danish Girl" is the first film that does justice to transgender people.  It's by no means the first, but even "Boys Don't Cry" was less interested in communicating the paradigm shift of gender transition.  Brandon knew who he was.  It isn't that simple for Lili Elbe, whose gradual realization that she is a woman trapped in the body of a man has huge ramifications for her and for her wife, Gerda.

Einar (Redmayne) and Gerda (Vikander) were living perfectly normal lives as bohemian artists in the 1920's.  Einar is a respected artist while Gerda is attempting to find her niche.  One day, one of Gerda's models is running late, so she has Einar fill in.  This triggers a change in his mind that confuses him.  But when he dresses as a woman named Lili for a party as a gag, he realizes something about himself that he had been surprising for years: he is a woman at heart.  It's something that he can ignore no longer, and before long, Gerda realizes it too.  But while being transgender is a challenge even in this day and age, it was unheard of a hundred years ago.

Eddie Redmayne is phenomenal as Lili.  Even before Lili emerges, we sense that there is something different about Einar, even if neither he nor Gerda sense it.  But once he gets the taste of femininity, he realizes what that is, and so do we.  He is uncomfortable in his own body, and the actor uses skillful body language to communicate this (helped along by the direction of Tom Hooper as well).  When he becomes Lili, we feel a sigh of release as if we are taking off a big coat in the middle of summer.  Redmayne disappears into this role so completely that it took me less than a minute to stop thinking of the actor.

Like Lili, Gerda also undergoes a change.  She loves Einar, but she eventually comes to the painful realization that the man she married no longer exists.  Instead, she has Lili.  Lili still loves her, but not the way a husband does.  Further muddying the waters is that only when she uses Lili as a model does she gain recognition for her work.  Her frustration and sadness provide fuel for her creativity.  Sadly, the screenplay doesn't smoothly illustrate her changing opinion of Lili, and the connection between this and her art isn't explored enough.

One smart decision Hooper makes to help us through the transition between Einar and Lili is to personify her as a different person than the man we were introduced to.  Einar and Gerda talk about her in the third person, and this mentally allows us to understand what is going on.  It's confusing at first, but ultimately it is the key to the film's success.

Redmayne and Vikander are supported by some gifted actors like Matthias Schoenaerts as Lili's childhood friend (the actor is terrific in an underwritten role) and Ben Whishaw as a potential love interest for her.  But this is predominantly a two character show.  In fact, it could be argued that the central character is actually Gerda.  That certainly raised a few eyebrows when Vikander was nominated in the Best Supporting Actress category at the Oscars, despite the fact that she has the most screen time.  The simple truth is that Focus Features thought she had a better chance of winning in that category instead of the lead actress category, where she would face off against Brie Larson in "Room."

The film stumbles on the way to the finish line.  Not so much in how it happens but in how Hooper handles it.  The film's story seems to run out of steam before he does.  A bit more judicious editing would have kept the film's momentum going (Redmayne's final scene with Whishaw probably should have been left for the special features on the Blu Ray).

The few small stumbles that Hooper makes do little to tarnish the intellectual and emotional brilliance of "The Danish Girl."  It's fascinating, heartfelt and timely.  Definitely recommended.