Poignant

Rating: 9/10 (5 February 2016)

It was certainly brave of Eddie Redmayne, and he turned in a very good performance, if slightly lacking in nuance - though that may be down to the script, and the limited time available to tell the story in a single film. For instance, we barely see anything of the lead up to the transformation, with the script concentrating far more on the aftermath. However, this is the reverse of many such biopics, and is welcome. The real star though (sorry Eddie) is Alicia Vikander, who, in Gerda, conveys a totally authentic sense of unconditional love and concern for her spouse, even up to and past the surgery. Of course the script helps, but there are very poignant moments when Alicia really makes this jump out of the screen. The ending is just too emotional to bear. The choice of the script writer to tell a fictitious love story only based on the true story, and not the true story itself, is in this case justified, as it allows a sense of poetry to emerge from the chaos of pain and beauty in this tragic tale.