"For a man to submit to a women's gaze is unsettling."

Rating: 7/10 (27 December 2015)

After finding her utterly mesmerising in Ex_Machina,I was thrilled to hear that Alicia Vikander was finishing 2015 by doing a costume Drama with Tom Hooper,which led to me getting ready to meet The Danish Girls.
The plot:
Getting set for her work to be shown in a gallery,artist Gerda Wegener gets her husband Einar Wegener to wear a dress due to a model not turning up.After they get a positive response to the painting,Einar continues to pose in women's clothes for Gerda.Starting to feel confident in being able to express all of his secrets,Einar reveals to Wegener that he has had a lifelong identification of himself as a women called Lili Elbe.
View on the film:
Spending most of the film together, Eddie Redmayne and Alicia Vikander both bravely show their vulnerabilities in the elegant naked scenes,which focus on the emotional struggle that they are both facing.Standing by Lili Elbe at every stage of the operation,Alicia Vikander gives a superb performance as Gerda Wegener, (who in real life was a lesbian and had an open relationship with Elbe-something which the film sadly omits)as Vikander shows Wegener trying to keep a film grip on her emotions whilst supporting Elbe during her operations,but struggling to come to terms with the end of their marriage.
Treating Elbe with the utmost sensitivity, Eddie Redmayne gives an excellent performance as Lili Elbe,thanks to Redmayne revealing Elbe's desire with a splendid delicacy,whilst displaying the overflowing anguish that Elbe gets from the reactions of those nearest to her.Adapting David Ebershoff's "loose" biographer of Wegener & Elbe,the screenplay by Lucinda Coxon rushes by the origins of Elbe & Wegener's relationship and goes straight to Einar Wegener revealing Lili Elbe.Whilst this approach does allow the title to focus on the challenges that Elbe faces,it sadly stops a foundation being built for the love and compassion that Elbe and Wegener have for each other,with Elbe showing little interest in Wegener's (her long-term partner) feelings on the matter,which leads to this film being a very elegant, but far from sweet Danish.