Review of The Danish Girl (2015) by Melania Z — 02 Jan 2016

I'm torn here.

On one hand, I don't think this is disrespectful to those who undergo transsexual surgeries, in that it's quite clear it's attempting to say it's not an illness that can just be treated. It's well shot, and most of the acting, in particular Vikander, is good.

On the other, and I may be entirely wrong here as I am in no position to say so with authority, but this felt to me like a film about transsexuals written not from one of their perspectives, but from what a non-transsexual, straight person THINKS it's like. It simply didn't feel true, and was played far more melodramatically than was necessary. Along with that melodrama comes a mangling of the real life events of Lili Elbe such that, to my understanding, the film is only superficially similar. I also wasn't terribly impressed with Redmayne's performance as Lili, as whenever he portrayed her he sounded like his character from "Jupiter: Ascending" minus the screaming, and his portrayal was the main reason this didn't feel authentic to me. He and Vikander's Gerda had decent chemistry as either character, but again, Gerda's role is also mangled from their real-life interactions to the point where I'd actually argue she's more the main character here than Lili, which is again problematic.

On a technical level, the film didn't flow well in that I was never quite sure how much time had passed. For example, in one scene Gerda mentions they're going to Paris so she can meet with an art distributor, then a few of scenes later it appears the two are living there.

As much as I complained though, and I stand by that, this mostly feels like a missed opportunity. I'd love to read a review by someone who's more familiar than I with the actual story and issues, but for me I see this as a film with a mediocre script that entirely mangles the life of it's protagonists, which is mostly elevated by actors trying their best to work with subpar material.