Wasted potential

Rating: 4/10 (5 January 2020)

Overall, I thought this movie was pretty well acted. The dialog felt natural, the characters consistent to how they were written, and the cinematography was beautiful and interesting.
I'm also going to ignore for a moment that my research into the movie found it to be completely inaccurate to the actual story, because that's something I've come to expect. Instead I'd like to focus on the main point: the transgender portrayal.
It is an incredibly common trope that being trans is like having a completely different person inside of you, with different thoughts and ideas and desires. And it is true that some transgender people portray it this way, because it can be easier to express yourself and remove yourself from a stressful situation. The problem is that you are NOT a different person from one moment to the next... if it were that easy, it would not be as painful when you try to come out.
Einar is shown to be madly in love with the wife at the beginning of the movie and just... doesn't love her after beginning transition? It's more common that after the transition, the spouse pulls back because of the perception of sexuality (for instance, a straight woman may have trouble being with a transwoman post transition simply due to the strain on sexual attraction), but I've actually seen more couples try (and succeed) to make it work or come to amicable parting. But that's a tangent.
Much of the plot relies on the fact that she was turning into someone else. So much could have been done without that. Even if they wanted relationship issues, barring the fact that transitioning in itself can be a painful and fascinating process without that, you could have just as easily gotten this with sexuality confusion or gender representation or societal pressure or a million other accurate issues that weren't "oh no, she's a new person now".
I could rant about this all day, but the my biggest contention is that by making her an entirely different person, she ends up villainized... People don't want to love the cheater, the liar, the abandoner. So in the end, all of our sympathy is urged toward Greda, and understandably so by the positioning of the issues. So this movies is not so much about their "unconditional love" as it becomes more about a "trans woman" who constantly hurts her spouse, who refuses to leave. Any time they might have talked it out or had an actual discussion, something would happen to cut it down and then everything was fine again??
No. No. This does nothing to benefit the narrative for women, or the struggle for transwomen specifically. Movies like this only further the idea that transitioning means LOSING the person you love instead of accepting and embracing them.
This is getting very long, but I just- if you're looking for an accurate portrayal of what it's like to be transgender, this is not it... This movie, while interesting and well made, will not help you understand. I wish I had a better recommendation for you.