The Danish Girl 

Starring: Eddie Redmayne, Alicia Vikander

Directed By: Tom Hooper

Written By: Lucinda Coxon

Reviewed by Joshua Ochoa

[rating: 3/5]

The Danish Girl is the latest film from Tom Hooper (The King’s Speech, Les Miserables) and stars Eddie Redmayne (The Theory of Everything) and Alicia Vikander (Ex Machina). It follows the events of Danish artist Einar Wegener’s transition into Lili Elbe, making her one the first identifiable recipients of sex reassignment surgery.  Now, one could get too political when it comes to topics like race, gender and sexuality and that would be the wrong thing to do. The Danish Girl must be viewed for what it is, a film.

With Oscar nominations, both Redmayne and Vikander are superb in this film and deserve the recognition. Redmayne disappears into his role and it’s hard to see where he begins and Lili Elbe ends. Vikander is also wonderful and both actors elevate the material significantly. Matthias Schoenaerts, Amber Heard and Ben Whishaw also have small roles in this film and give strong performances too. Tom Hooper has always been good with his actors and this is just further proof of that.

Set in 1920’s Copenhagen, the time and place is wonderfully realised. From the production design to the costuming it’s quite exquisite though it definitely retains Hooper’s affinity for peeling paint and stained walls. The colours are quite pastel but that doesn’t stop it from being vibrant and colourful. The cinematography is also stunning, filled with many wonderful compositions and also Tom Hooper’s affinity for wide angle lenses. I also believe it’s the first film he has shot digitally. Last but definitely not least of the technical aspects is Alexandre Desplat’s gorgeous score which does as much of the emotional heavy lifting as the actors do.

But, as good as all the acting and technical aspects are it doesn’t matter if there isn’t a compelling story and that’s where The Danish Girl comes into some trouble. The tone can come off a bit uneven as it goes from making a joke on gender to trying to be incredibly serious about the struggles of Lili’s situation. This often makes for some overly melodramatic scenes or undercuts the power of several important moments. The film also contains many changes from the real life story which happens with every bio-pic but some are pretty significant.

But for me the biggest crime is that there are quite a few stretches where the film is just boring. I’m never opposed to long running times but The Danish Girl definitely could have been shorter. It also plays into the rather predictable bio-pic format which definitely needs some shaking up like Love & Mercy and the upcoming Steve Jobs have done. But, it’s still a fine film. All the technical aspects are good and the performances and wonderful but there’s just something missing to make it really memorable.