The melodramatic docudrama The Danish Girl is based on the real life of Einar Wegener/Lili Elbe, one of the first people to receive sexual reassignment surgery. We begin with a devoted and playful young married couple of Danish painters in the 1920s (Eddie Redmayne and Alicia Vikander). He is a moderately successful landscape painter, and she is a struggling portraitist. As they experiment with sexual role-playing, his self-identification as a woman named Lili is revealed, and their journey continues though his-to-her transgender metamorphosis through the groundbreaking surgery.
There’s a point when he starts acting out his gender identification in ways that are not okay with her, and this is the best part of the film. Vikander plays a woman who is sexually ahead of her time, but anyone would be knocked for a loop when their partner switches genders. It doesn’t help when Lili addresses her very real yearnings with a substantial degree of selfishness.
But then The Danish Girl starts dragging and then ultimately grinds into boredom and predictability. The movie keeps hammering us with the wife’s devoted support of her transforming spouse, the secret they strive to maintain, yada yada. Tom Hooper, the director of The King’s Speech and the literally miserable Les Miserables, is technically quite good; he also knows how to make a movie pretentious and ponderous. There’s probably a better 90-minute movie embedded in The Danish Girl’s 119 minutes.
Vikander is just outstanding as the wife. Redmayne also nails his role, a part every bit as showy as in The Theory of Everything. Matthias Schoenaerts, Amber Heard and Ben Whislaw are excellent in supporting roles. Sebastian Koch, who is always good, is also solid in a secondary role.
The costumes in The Danish Girl are exquisite. The early hints as to his gender identification come with his attraction to the fabric and design of fine clothes. Then Lili expresses her femininity through ever more ravishing and flamboyant fashion. All of the clothes are beautiful to look at, from Vikander’s new nightgown to the dapper suits and cravats on Matthias Schoennaerts. In the second half of the film, Vikander wears a turquoise dress with a vertical decorative panel that is a masterpiece of art deco design.
Excellent acting, phenomenal costumes and some riveting early scenes. Then meh.