Review of The Danish Girl (2015) by Sophia L — 19 Dec 2015

Alicia Vikander was stunning and brave in this movie, as well as Eddie Redmayne. I became a fan of Alicia's after watching A Royal Affair, but had not yet seen Eddie Redmayne in a movie where he is required of as much versatility and raw emotion as The Danish Girl.

A lot of people are quick to judge it for it being oscar fodder, but what I say to those people is: if a story looks like it would be oscar fodder, doesn't that usually mean that it is, well, moving and beautifully filmed? That is exactly what The Danish Girl is, and those qualities are what I look for in films.

Eddie Redmayne is both strikingly handsome and beautiful at the same time as Lili Elbe - the only male actor I have ever seen with this quality. That is, besides his natural acting capabilities, perhaps why he was cast: to make the film more enjoyable to the average Hollywood movie-watcher's eye.

However, sometimes his beautiful face made me feel that it took away a layer of Lili Elbe's story and the story of many trans people, which is the struggle of coming to accept one's body even if it doesn't fill the expectations for the gender into which they are transitioning.

This is one of the only problems I had with the film, and yet I could not see the part played as well by any other actor. The other problem I have is quite small, and has to do with the role of Oola Paulson.

As someone who has studied ballet and is picky about movie editing, it was grating for me to see that they didn't use a real dancer for the shots when Amber Heard is at the barre towards the beginning of the movie.

The position she was in was turned-in and slouched, and the poor editing of this scene really struck a nerve with me. It is important in all aspects of a film for it to be well edited and realistic. Also, I unfortunately found Amber's acting to be especially over-done in the first half of the film, which made it harder for me to enjoy.

Other than that, I think that this film is definitely worthy of awards and Eddie Redmayne and Alicia Vikander deserve to be rewarded for their wonderful work.