513: The Danish Girl

[00:00:00] 220, Let's get to The Danish Girl, which came out in 2015, of course done by Tom Hooper, stars Eddie Redmayne, Alicia Vikander, Amber Heard, Ben Whishaw, Matthias Schoenartz.

[00:00:19] And the synopsis is a fictitious love story loosely inspired by the lives of Danish artists Lily Elby and Gerda Wegner. Lily and Gerda's marriage and work evolve as they navigate Lily's groundbreaking journey as a transgender pioneer.

[00:00:39] Well, when this one came out, it was a pretty big deal for a variety of reasons. It was, of course, a follow up to Les Mis for Tom Hooper.

[00:00:52] Eddie Redmayne had just won the Oscar for The Theory of Everything, which we'll get to for a bonus review.

[00:01:01] Firstly, I understand why some people really hate this film.

[00:01:07] With one of the main things being it's a movie about a transgender person made by all straight people.

[00:01:14] You know, they called it a transgender movie for straight people, essentially.

[00:01:21] Eddie Redmayne has even come out and said recently that I regret taking that role.

[00:01:28] The overall message or the construction or concept was misguided.

[00:01:34] You know, it should have been done differently.

[00:01:36] However, there are other things typically to enjoy.

[00:01:41] So that's mainly what I'm going to speak about.

[00:01:46] The setting overall, as I always say with all of Tom Hooper's films, it looks incredible.

[00:01:51] He uses a lot of low angle shots to really accentuate the huge high ceilings and these big city landscapes.

[00:02:00] Still a lot of deep focus cinematography.

[00:02:04] So really the production design, the locations.

[00:02:07] I love the look of the city.

[00:02:10] The apartment of Eddie Redmayne and Alicia Vikander.

[00:02:17] Another good score by Alexander Desplat.

[00:02:20] One thing that is, I guess, unfortunate and also ironic is I find that not from a commentary perspective, but from a writing perspective, Eddie Redmayne's character, both as Einar and then becoming Lily, is the least interesting.

[00:02:45] I feel like it was the most shallow in terms of, I don't need to fully understand every little thing about why Einar did what he did and who he became.

[00:02:55] But I feel like on an emotional level, on a mental level, there's not that much explored.

[00:03:00] Within the character, it's just here, I need to do this.

[00:03:05] Because Alicia Vikander, by far, goes through the most interesting arc.

[00:03:10] And her performance is amazing.

[00:03:14] She's so spontaneous and real and has such a good range.

[00:03:22] But her character, from a writing point of view, she's a normal, everyday wife of Einar.

[00:03:30] And sometimes uses him as a model for her paintings.

[00:03:35] And then suddenly, once she allows him to start trying on these dresses and other things and he starts to enjoy it, at first, she's almost like turned on by it.

[00:03:46] And she's having fun with it.

[00:03:48] She's like, oh, this is so ridiculous, but it's fun and exciting and new for us.

[00:03:56] However, later on, she realizes that this is not just a fad for him.

[00:04:03] This is who he actually wants to become.

[00:04:06] And she struggles with the support of Lily and struggling with her own emotions of, I want my husband.

[00:04:16] You know, there's that great scene where her hair is all wet and scraggly towards the end.

[00:04:21] And she's like, I want to see my husband.

[00:04:23] And then she's looking at Lily and Lily is like, basically, he doesn't exist anymore.

[00:04:30] And so then she's trying to deal with, okay, am I going to stay with Lily?

[00:04:36] Not from a societal perspective, but for my own well-being, my own happiness.

[00:04:44] How that narrative, that arc of that character goes up and down and all those conflicts is really interesting.

[00:04:52] When it comes to Eddie Redmayne, I think he's a very interesting actor.

[00:04:55] He already has some very iconic performances aside from this.

[00:04:59] I think when it comes to this, aside from the most obvious issue, what he does probably the best is when he becomes Lily.

[00:05:11] And in those initial stages, when she's walking around fully as Lily, she's at parties with Alicia Vikander, that sort of thing.

[00:05:22] And that fear, like when it comes to Ben Whishaw's character trying to put the moves on her.

[00:05:28] There's that fear of, oh my God, what if someone finds out?

[00:05:32] What if I'm not ready for this?

[00:05:34] What if things go terribly wrong?

[00:05:37] Like, who am I?

[00:05:38] I think that is portrayed well, as best as Eddie Redmayne could.

[00:05:44] It's just that there are times, like I get that the overall character is effeminate, even from the very beginning.

[00:05:53] But there are still points where I feel like he becomes maybe a little too precious in how he portrays the character.

[00:06:01] Like, it's just overly cutesy, a little too much that doesn't always feel real.

[00:06:07] And I get that he's becoming someone else, so he's going through the growing pains, so to speak.

[00:06:13] But that performance doesn't totally work for me.

[00:06:19] Now, one criticism, which I'm not going to, I don't want to get into all this because I'm not the right person to speak about it.

[00:06:25] I'm just saying from what I've heard and feel free to comment if I'm out of line or if I didn't hear something or if I missed something, whatever.

[00:06:32] Feel free to let me know and correct me.

[00:06:34] One criticism is people blaming the film, blaming Tom Hooper for showing this transformation and people within the society calling it out to be like it is a mental illness.

[00:06:52] And to me, because obviously even in today's age, unfortunately, horribly so, the transgender community is constantly disrespected and degraded by a lot of people who just don't understand, who are unwilling to understand or to accept.

[00:07:14] And sadly, I hear people relating that to mental illness all the time.

[00:07:19] Not that I in any way agree.

[00:07:20] I'm just saying I hear that on a weekly, monthly basis by a lot of people.

[00:07:26] Who are just ignorant.

[00:07:29] So if we're talking about when the transgender community, how small that it was, there are even more.

[00:07:39] Almost the whole world would probably have seen it that way.

[00:07:41] Maybe aside from a few, but if it's this bad now, I can only imagine how it was back then.

[00:07:47] When there was no sort of support, there was no awareness.

[00:07:52] So I think if, from what I'm getting from the film, I don't understand that criticism by what the context and the period of the film itself.

[00:08:03] And sure, a transgender person directing this movie, starring, would have done that a lot better.

[00:08:09] I don't doubt it.

[00:08:12] It's just that in the few times that I've seen it, that portrayal, unfortunately, seems very real to how a lot of people would be.

[00:08:24] And that's all I'm going to say about it.

[00:08:26] But I don't want to dive too deeply into it because, for one, that's not the reason I'm talking about this.

[00:08:32] So let's get into other things.

[00:08:36] One strength of Tom Hooper with all of his movies, even the worst one, he has the ability that I always get, even from the first viewing, of really wrapping all of his films in a sense of feeling, of emotion.

[00:08:53] And this movie, I feel like even though there are a decent amount of flaws, I always get a sense of intimacy and emotion when I watch them.

[00:09:05] Which I can't really say that about a lot of directors.

[00:09:10] Some other criticisms, though, I do find that in terms of the sometimes shallowness of the script, it does drag some in the middle.

[00:09:21] Like, it does feel long.

[00:09:22] Oh, and actually, Matthias Schoenarts, if that's how you say it, he's a great actor, very underrated character actor.

[00:09:32] He can really do anything.

[00:09:33] And I really like the relationship between him and Alicia Vikander of him sort of being a confidant, in a way, for her.

[00:09:44] All of the posing scenes for the paintings at the beginning or towards the beginning when it's either a client or Eddie Redmayne posing for Alicia Vikander.

[00:09:56] This is one of Amber Heard's better roles.

[00:09:59] She's not in it a lot, but I do like her in it.

[00:10:04] So I feel like this is always going to be a movie that it'll never be a masterpiece.

[00:10:09] I'm not going to fault someone for despising it.

[00:10:14] It's definitely too bad that of this character, of this woman being a transgender pioneer, this is the only movie, at least for the time being, that we're going to get of her.

[00:10:27] But regardless, hopefully it will spark some interest in the actual story.

[00:10:37] Sometimes fictionalized stories like this can do that.

[00:10:40] That's how it's been for me.

[00:10:42] I've watched movies of all kinds that change the timeline or certain aspects of a character in history or a person in history.

[00:10:51] And I discover the truth about it all.

[00:10:54] And I probably would have only gotten there if I had seen that movie or whatever else it may have been or the novel.

[00:11:05] So that is a strength for me.

[00:11:09] And I respect it in that way.

[00:11:13] So that is a heavy three and a half out of five.

[00:11:17] So that is a heavy three and a half out of five.