[yasr_overall_rating]
The remarkable love story inspired by the lives of artists Lili Elbe and Gerda Wegener. Lili and Gerda’s marriage and work evolve as they navigate Lili’s groundbreaking journey as a transgender pioneer.
It isn’t just the obvious aspects that take “The Danish Girl” outside of the realm of traditional love stories in film. The beauty and life, blended with pain and confusion, isn’t exactly new, but the drenching coat of insatiability and largely unreciprocitated love being experienced by all is; as is the fact there never ceases to be, despite the heavy subject matter, a lack of connecting or coupling.
“The Danish Girl” is not directly inspired by the original diaries of pioneering trans woman Lili Elbe; who may have been more of a socialite than the brief and troublesome experiment that the film suggests. Instead it takes David Ebershoff’s novelized version (also called “The Danish Girl”) of those diary pages that had been published in the 30s as Lili’s autobiography; “Man into Woman,” and creates a connected but new experience to accompany the Pulitzer Prize winning novel, as well as the actual events and individuals, with the help of screenwriter Lucinda Coxon.
Characters in the film work as devices to let more of a story be told than what possibly could over the roughly three hours that “The Danish Girl” spans; but not in a way that comes off too abrasive. Director Todd Hooper, who completed his first professional short at the age of 13 and is known for the highly recognized biopic “The King’s Speech,” does a beautiful job of bringing it all together and increasing the story with necessarily artistic visuals that draw the eye in a constantly soft way; regardless of the possible harshness of the corresponding scene.
In factual defiance of arguments that make everything LGBTQ a new horror invented in the early 80s, “The Danish Girl” presents the story of the transformation of successful artist Einar Wegner into Lilili Elbe; one of the first trans (possibly intersex) people to pursue a then experimental surgery. The film reveals and will possibly expose some audience members to a long societal struggle to hide and end differences not lining up with the status quo of gender norms – to make abnormalities found widely enough in nature (both human and otherwise) to have established studies as early as the 1920s, undesirable qualities; through a method of painting them as unique to the insane, sinful even.
With plenty of room for misinterpretation, this is not a film that romanticizes the experience of biological mix-ups, sexual deviations, or the people whose stories contain a heavy presence of these themes. Lili Elbe is a little selfish, not entirely loving, not entirely perfect, but needing to be cured of an affliction. “The Theory of Everything” star Eddie Redmayne brings the perfect qualities to both characters; with a combination of acting ability and facial features that are more androgynous than feminine.
Ben Wishaw portrays a perfect, stereotype breaking, temporary love interest; the gay man who is no longer interested in a surgically changed Lilli. With a resume spanning back to ’99, it is easy to feel uncultured not knowing more about the roles Ben has played outside of “The Danish Girl.” The same can be said for Matthias Schoenaerts who plays the role of Hans, a man with a special place in the heart and life of both Lilli and Einar.
Austin born actress Amber Heard as Ulla, a feminine influence as much as Einar’s wife, and skilled artist, Gerda Wegner (Alicia Vikander), helps to secure a timeless sense in “The Danish Girl” with vintage, lounge inspired wardrobes and real emotion. Though Lilli doesn’t model herself directly after either woman, there are common elements, such as the scarf Lilli often borrows from Gerda, an essential to one of the most moving visual scenes in any film, that show on an unspoken level how Gerda and Ulla both assist in creating Lilli. Similar to, but glaringly different from, the way most couples create and bring a new person into the world. The commonality of surrogates an IVF in this day and age really give this film a context it couldn’t have have in another time in history.
Audiences even slightly familiar with the work of Jalil Lespert in “Yves Saint Laurent” may interpret stylistic similarities in aesthetic. All audiences will feel something. Giving “The Danish Girl” all the credentials it needs to be presented as art itself, and not just an art film.
The story is human, and deeply touching; not about changing or reversing but about embracing the complete story and person, always; even after they falter to do so. Even after you falter to do so.
In theaters December 18th
