Against the grain

Rating: 4/10 (11 February 2016)

The Danish Girl is directed by Tom Hooper who got a Best Director Oscar for The King's Speech.
The film is adapted from a book which itself fictionalised events relating to the real Einer Wegener and Gerda, two artists living in Copenhagen in the 1920s who were also married to each other.
When Gerda is let down by a female model she persuades Einer to wear female attire and pose for some paintings. This sets off a chain of events in Einer who begins to feel more feminine and creates a daring persona of Lili whose portraits sell very well.
Gerda seems at first to be titillated by Einer's daring in wearing women's clothing but she then also is fearful as Lili attracts male attention. Over time Einer wants to become more female and Gerda attracts the attention of other suitors, especially Hans who also knew Einer as a child.
The film is beautiful to look at with exquisite art direction, costumes and sets. There is a lot of location shooting as the film was shot in France, Denmark and Germany.
Alicia Vikander who plays Gerda is the heart of the film but her motive oscillates too much from being encouraging, to be repulsed and then standing by her man despite the attentions of Hans wonderfully played by (Matthias Schoenaerts.)
Eddie Redmayne is young and thin enough to pass off well in those scenes where he plays Lili and I am sure he practised posing and use of his hand and body gestures a lot to appear fragile as Lili.
The film does feel like a mis-fire though, it feels rather starchy and well intentioned, even too conservative. Something never really hangs together in the film. I never got the feeling that Einar felt like someone who always felt he was in the wrong body which seems to be the common theme for people who take part in sex-change operations.
I do not think it helps that is based very loosely in true events and more inspired by the fictional novel. It wants to be a period love story of a woman stoically supportive of her husband even if he takes for the time a novel and drastic steps for transformation surgery which leads to tragedy.