A beautiful portrayal of a transgender man and his wife

Rating: 6/10 (7 April 2016)

The successful British director Tom Hooper, who made big films like The King's Speech and Les Misérables, here takes on the true story about one of the world's first sex changes. Eddie Redmayne plays Einar Wegener who changes his sex and becomes the woman Lili Elbe. Alicia Vikander plays Einar's wife Gerde. They both deliver fantastic Oscar nominated performances. The Danish Girl is an important film not only about a sex change, but also LGBT rights and above all transsexual people's right to a life of their own choosing.
The main focus of the film is actually not directly on Einar/Lili, and we as an audience sees most of it all through the eyes of the wife Gerda. I am a bit divided in my opinion about this because it makes us a spectator, but when the main plot focuses on Einar/Lili and we follow it through Gerde's eyes, we still barely get to know her. She functions mainly as support to Einar/Lili. It would have been interesting to make the film entirely from the perspective of Einar/Lili. Make us the audience become her, feel and understand how she feels. Gerda could have been a supporting character on the side. This also becomes more clear with the fact that Redmayne, nominated for the leading role has less screen time than Vikander who is nominated for a supporting role.
I think The Danish Girl is a good film you must see. It does take certain liberties with the story, compared to the truth, but most likely to make it more exciting on film. This does not bother me because the film's message is more important than an exact truthful story. I do however think it would have been better if we were to follow the film more from the perspective of Einar/Lili than Gerde. Make us really enter her head, make us understand how she feels. Otherwise, the film is incredibly beautiful to watch. The costumes, the production design and the cinematography is extraordinary, plus beautiful music by Alexandre Desplat. I am hoping for a Swedish Oscar on Sunday.
David Lindahl - www.filmografen.se