Review of The Danish Girl (2015) by Dayes W — 21 Jan 2016

If Leonardo DiCaprio loses the Oscar to Eddie Redmayne for this movie, I will be okay with it. Eddie did a great job and I was entirely convinced that he was Einar Wegener. However, I can't give the film more than 3 stars because of two main reasons.

First, the way it's written, it really sounds like Einar is suffering from schizophrenia as opposed to gender dysphoria. I'm not going to pretend like I know what either condition feels like, but based on the research I've read, that is what I felt the film portrayed.

Second, I think the true hero of the story is Gerda, and not Einar. It takes an incredible amount of love, selflessness, and sacrifice for someone to do what Gerda did to support Einar's transition into Lily. Gerda gave up everything for Einar/Lily, and yet she was not even remotely recognized as the hero.

So while I enjoyed the film, and cried at the end, it was for Gerda that those tears were shed, and not Einar/Lily.