Movie Review - The Danish Girl

The Danish Girl **½ (out of 5) (R) For those who think gender identity issues are something new, here’s a fact-based drama about Danish Eigar Wegener, whose seemingly happy marriage and success were not enough to keep a lid on his inner persona, Lili. As portrayed by Eddie Redmayne, following last year’s stellar turn as Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything, Wegener’s lifelong conflict eventually boiled over, despite staunch condemnation of his tendencies by the social norms of Europe in the 1920s. Alicia Vikander co-stars as the most loving, supportive, understanding wife in the history of our species, submerging her own artistic and personal wants and needs to the baffling forces driving the man she loved.

A decade ago, this film would have been far more shocking than it seems now. Reality has emerged from the shadows, making Wegener’s ordeal more anachronistic, and less relevant to our times. He risked his marriage, career, prison, and some rather horrifying treatment options from that generation of physicians. If born 80 years later, the medical profession would have understood his condition far more clearly; he might have even learned as a child that those feelings he feared and loathed were less aberrant than he assumed. His options for adulthood would have allowed a less traumatic course for all concerned, whatever choices he’d have made.

The acting is superb, though the story drags (no pun intended) far longer than the subject warrants, since we know so much more about the issue. Even though acceptance and assimilation lag far behind that initial acknowledgment, the prolonged course for these characters turns to overkill, undermining the potency of their circumstances and actions. Sets and locations are first-rate, and Vikander’s performance will likely earn as many award nominations as Redmayne’s more obviously arduous role. (12/18/15)