"The Danish Girl"
Title: The Danish Girl
Director: Tom Hooper
Writer: Lucinda Coxon (screenplay), David Ebershoff (novel)
Category: Biography, Drama, Romance
Duration: 119 min
Rate: 
The second
movie that I chose for this award season is The Danish Girl. I
was curious and excited to watch this particular movie as I fell in
love with it through the trailer. However, I should have reminded
myself that sometimes trailers can be deceiving and that their job is
to make the movie appealing to the audience.
After careful
thoughts and considerations I had to say that, sadly, I was
disappointed by some major aspects in the movie.
Tom Hooper's
last effort is an adaptation from Ebershoff's novel "The Danish
Girl" and it's about Lili Elbe, the first identifiable trans
In the movie,
the story follows Einar Wegener's discovery of his true female
identity trapped inside his male body and the painful journey to
change himself in order to become Lili, with the support of his wife
Gerba.
The story had
so much potential, especially in such a controversial time in which
the LGBT community is fighting so many battles to gain more equal
rights and being heard. However, the screenplay didn't develop these
subject matters fully and this resulted in an inconsistent movie that
glamourised
In The Danish Girl too many
problematic topics are discussed in a too superficial way, just
passing over them with a line or a scene. From the predominant gender
reassignment issue, to the difference between female gaze and male
gaze in a patriarchal society, each hot topic is not developed fully,
leaving the audience with the idea that the movie wanted to say too
much without having enough time to do it or worse, choosing the wrong
way to express them.
The real events in Lili Elbe and Gerba Wegner's lives weren't portrayed with the accuracy needed, so much so that even
Gerba homosexuality was completely left out of the story, replacing
it with a more politically correct closeness with Hans, Einer's old
childhood friend, who is there just to be a new male figure in her
life.
While the
screenplay can be considered spotty and trivial, the cinematography
tries to fill in the gap left by the plot with breathtaking panoramic
shots of the Denmark landscape and Paris and with some scenes that
try to highlight the internal struggle felt by Einar throughout his
transition. Worth mentioning is a particular scene in a Parisian
brothel in which Einar pays to watch a naked prostitute touch her
body while he tries to mirror her behavior and movements. The camera
moves between Eddie and the female actor and by blurring
alternatively the two actors it feels like Einar is watching himself
as Lili in a mirror, since the prostitute has some resembling
features, stressing once again Einar's desire and need to be Lili.
The cast and
their interpretation of the characters are mostly outstanding,
however, while Alicia Vikander was consistent with the growth of
Gerba Wegner and her performance was heartfelt and truthful, Eddie
Redmayne, this time, didn't reach his full potential. His Lili/Einar
wasn't completely real, it was more like a pantomimic interpretation
of being a woman. For most of the film he flutters his eyelashes too
much or uses his hands to touch delicately his face or his body. The
really honest moment in which he understood his character
and gave justice to his performance were the ones in which he has to
look at his body or show how Einar is suffering in hiding his true
identity as Lili.
Along with the
cinematography, the soundtrack was the other aspect that helped the
movie from being a complete failure. Alexandre Desplat was able to
create the most delicate melody for every crucial moment in the
movie helping the cinematography in making them more significant.
All
in all, for a film that had the potential to be a great story, The
Danish Girl failed
to really represent an interesting tale about a sensitive topic.
Instead, because of a superficial and inconsistent screenplay, it
fell short, leaving the audience with a bitter taste in their mouth.
Till next time,
Fred
Here's the trailer:
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