Review of The Danish Girl (2015) by Ashley A — 15 Jan 2016

I'm transgender, and the film was amazing. It's the only film that's ever made me cry. Really. It was embarassing.

Others say it has imperfections, but I think it is a realistic interpretation of how people were treated in the 1920's.

There *is* a lot that the movie doesn't explain. The depth hinted-at is amazing, but It could take a dozen movies to give everything proper treatment.

I'm familiar with the topics, so that's probably why it clicked for me. I know trans people who tried to commit suicide. I have visited them in the ICU at the hospital. I've met groups of people who are all divorced, and many homeless. I know people who were beat by the police, arrested for self defense, hooked on drugs, and worse.

My only objection to the movie is that Lili is a jerk to Gerda. That seems to be an intentional part of the script - a character defect. Most transgender people wind up divorced and disowned by family. A supportive wife, and one that looks like that... That made me cringe to watch Lili ignore Gerda. Lili has no idea how lucky she was. Maybe the real Lily was a jerk.

But the movie was accurate, at least for the 1920's.