'The Danish Girl': The protagonist remains something of a mystery
It鈥檚 a sign of the cultural shift that a movie about a transgender woman who undergoes gender reassignment surgery should today seem less than an eye-opener. After Caitlyn Jenner and Jeffrey Tambor in Amazon鈥檚聽鈥淭ransparent,鈥� there is little novelty in Tom Hooper鈥檚 鈥淭he Danish Girl,鈥澛燼bout the Danish landscape painter Einar Wegener (Eddie Redmayne),聽who transitioned in the 1920s into Lili Elbe, one of the first to undergo聽such a surgery. Novelty isn鈥檛 everything, though. What might have聽rescued 鈥淭he Danish Girl鈥� is a deeper and tougher treatment of Lili鈥檚聽transition, and the transition, too, of her portrait painter wife Gerda (Alicia聽Vikander, fine), who stood by her.
Redmayne, who radiates ambi-sexuality here, is perfectly cast, but the聽role, as scripted by Lucinda Coxon, doesn鈥檛 provide enough ballast for聽him. Lili's exploration begins when Gerda asks her husband to pose as a聽female model for one of her portraits. When Gerda arrives home one day to find Lili swathed in stockings and high heels, they are both confronted, after six years of marriage, with a momentous decision about their future together.
But what this couple goes through, in psychological terms, is vague at best. (Gerda, for example, demonstrates little rage.) Whether Einar or Lili, the character remains something of a mystery by the end. This is not an inappropriate approach, I suppose, but I wish the filmmakers had tried a bit harder to unravel a bit聽more of that mystery. Grade: B- (Rated R for some sexuality and full nudity.)
