Review of The Danish Girl (2015) by David F — 10 Jan 2016

A surprisingly delicate take on a heavyweight topic, The Danish Girl covers important ground in a palatable manner without ever really digging too deep into the emotional turmoil beneath. Redmayne is immensely watchable as Einar/Lily, though I did start to tire of his tearful performance which at times verged on affected.

For me the heart of the tale was Gerda, fiercely brought to life by a committed, heart-felt and more varied performance from Vikander. Her journey of shock, acceptance and inevitable loss was engrossing and captured my sympathy in the end, far more than Lily's - who although undoubtedly brave, I felt became selfishly engrossed in her own battle and marginally unlikeable by the end.

The script did truncate some of the much needed confrontations between Gerda and Lily, which gave a slightly saccharine coating to what would surely have been a Herculean journey of acceptance for Gerda.

It was a well acted, well-intentioned film, which was safely enjoyable throughout. Just given the importance of the content matter I was left feeling The Danish Girl could have been a bit more daring.