Trite, sentimental waste of an important subject

Rating: 1/10 (16 January 2016)

A non-biographical biopic, "The Danish Girl" is one of the worst attempts at mainstreaming an LGBT-themed story I have ever had the displeasure to see. It takes far too many liberties with the real lives of its principal characters Lili Elbe and Gerda Wegener, and reduces an interesting story and relationship to a superficial tear-jerker, albeit an excellently photographed one.
As in the book, Gerda Wegener's sexual identity is completely neglected, and Lili Elbe's transition is initially portrayed less than identity awakening and rather than role-play. Redmayne as Elbe is thoroughly miscast - it's really, really time by now to have trans parts played by trans people. He plays the character like an effeminate gay man, and if you have trans friends, you will understand how untrue that is. Vikander is doing OK with an underwritten role which shies away from the less romantic real story - for instance, Wegener was not present when Elbe died. Whishaw's character is completely superfluous. Sebastian Koch owes his presence to a big German contribution to the film's budget - still, the most interesting part of the story, the reassignment procedure he is carrying out, is dismissed by a sloppy, predictable script.
As some of you may know, there was an LGBT campaign to get "Tangerine" nominated for an Academy Award. That film is low budget, features actual Trans actresses and (almost) avoids cliché. If it wasn't for that fact, I would probably rate "The Danish Girl" a 4. But since it was actually nominated, it amounts to an insult of the LGBT community by an Academy consisting predominantly of white males in their 50s (there are also zero black nominees this year by the way). Some people seem to believe that any LGBT-themed movie is a good thing, even if it's as shallow as this one. But I see this kind of "made for straight audiences award grabber" as ignorant of the people it's supposed to be about - like "Stonewall", which forged a historic event to exclude trans women and drag queens. "The Danish Girl" is just as annoying and obsolete.