Tuesday, December 15, 2015

The Danish Girl - 3 smiles

“The Danish Girl,” based on the life of transgender pioneer Lili Elbe, has many things going for it: excellent acting, impeccable production values and socially relevant subject matter. Yet this well-crafted film often seems too restrained. Perhaps this approach may make the movie more accessible to a wider audience, but the script too often constrains the dramatic conflict of the story, which concerns a married Danish artist who undergoes gender reassignment surgery in 1920s Europe. Ostensibly, “The Danish Girl” is a historical biopic about this courageous transgender figure, but in reality, it’s more a love-conquerors-all tale in which Lili’s wife, Gerda, serves as the emotional core. That’s not a bad thing, but somehow Lili gets short shrift: we see her change on the exterior, but less so on the interior.

It’s telling that most of the powerful moments in this dramatic love story occur when Lili  (Eddie Redmayne) and Gerda (Alicia Vikander) are alone or interacting with other characters. The two lead actors deliver strong performances, but the script doesn’t allow the sparks to fly between them. As the story moves along, we get hints of how their heretofore sexual relationship has been affected by Lili’s self-revelation. It’s as if director Tom Hooper is afraid to venture too far into tricky territory for fear of offending anyone. More important, Lili’s courage seems to be an afterthought in the story. It took an extraordinary act of bravery for Lili to act on her gender identity, but we only see a little of the inner turmoil she must have felt. We actually see more of the conflict and its effects on Gerda.


Fortunately, the presence of Redmayne offsets some of the film’s deficiencies. Coming off his Oscar-winning turn as Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything, the actor proves once again his fearlessness and his dedication to his craft. His Lili is a technical marvel, an impressive assortment of gestures and expressions that are skillfully designed to show the Danish painter’s transition from Einar Wegener to Lili Elbe. Vikander has the less showy role, but her character is more three-dimensional and gives the film its emotional heft. Gerda’s pain, confusion and ultimate acceptance are evident. Her love for Lili is everything. Every frame of this movie is exquisitely shot and it’s obvious that this is a labor of love for those involved. However, Hooper’s strategy of keeping it safe is bound to affect how engaging audiences find “The Danish Girl.”

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