Food for thought - what actually matters?

Rating: 7/10 (15 January 2016)

In 1920s Copenhagen, young married artists Gerda and Einar indulge in sex games where Einar adopts the identity of Lili. Things rapidly turn more serious as it transpires that Einar feels, deep inside, that Lili is his real identity, trapped in Einar's body. Gerda, as confused as Lili is, supports her as she makes her way towards her true persona in times which were not really ready to deal with that sort of issue.
Eddie Redmayne, as Einar/Lili, and Alicia Vikander as Gerda, are garnering praise for their performances here, and it is richly deserved: they are both deeply affecting in this adaptation of a novel which is based on real people. Redmayne adopts an androgynous physicality which makes Lili credible, and Vikander has a quality of fragile beauty intermixed with plainness which is quite unique (her English accent is also exemplary), which means that they are both physically appropriate for their roles, but the real strength of this film is in the emotional stakes.
I have no experience and little interest in gender confusion – or, at least, I didn't. But this film raises questions about the nature of gender and its interaction with love. There is a sequence where Ben Wishaw attempts to kiss Lili – a gay actor playing a man whose sexual orientation is unclear, attempting to kiss a straight actor playing a man masquerading as a woman whose sexual orientation, at that point, is apparently straight, and it left me enormously confused on a level I'm not familiar with. I came away with the conclusion – glib, perhaps – that people are people and, while sexual orientation is important on an individual level, maybe it's not that important in terms of absolute love.
There is a lot of food for thought in this film.