The Danish Girl

It’s anyone’s guess whether the amazing Mr. Redmayne’s most prestigious performance will go down in the archives as Stephen Hawking in "The Theory of Everything" or as the tortured, androgynous woman trapped in a man’s body in The Danish Girl. But it’s a sure thing that he’ll be nominated for another Oscar.

Eddie Redmayne’s enthralling star turn as a transgender pioneer in The Danish Girl affirms his status as an ace cinematic chameleon — a transformer who rivals Optimus Prime. If only the movie wasn’t quite so polite.

There’s an inevitability about The Danish Girl being well received by critics and at awards ceremonies. This is, after all, a movie with a strong social message about tolerance and inclusivity. Dramatically, however, it’s a mixed bag.

In the early days of Einar's transformation, Redmayne conveys the degree to which gender is, for all of us, a skill acquired through observation and imitation.

Hooper’s latest is tasteful and restrained to a fault. It is easier to admire than love.

It’s obvious that this is a well-intentioned, sensitive labor of love, and Hooper’s strategy of keeping it safe is bound to bring in folks who might otherwise avoid such material. For the rest of us, we must settle for a film that is solid but never quite soars.

In so clearly viewing Lili through the lens of 21st-century political correctness, the film only blunts the resolve of her struggle.

"The Danish Girl" is an outstanding work of drama, showing the struggles of a man finding himself to be a woman at heart and the change that he experiences, as a pioneer in the Transgender community, the director has created a raw yet beautiful film that never fails to make an audience smile and cry, the performance by Eddie is absolutely outstanding, interestingly, his character is a more beautiful woman than many that I know. This film is very important for the progressive society, showing the human aspects of such a difficult transformation.

The Danish Girl is certainly an interesting film, but I would not call it a perfect one. The story is very intriguing but the whole film is carried by the performances from the leading duo of Eddie Redmayne and Alicia Vikander and both of these stars deserve the Oscar nominations that they have received for this year. I can't say that I am a true fan of Tom Hooper's films. I didn't enjoy The Theory of Everything as much as some other people did although I did think it was a good film. I find that this film has a bit of a similar formula to The Theory of Everything (which of course also had Redmayne in a starring role) and there are points where this is completely obvious. The actors do a good job at playing their roles but there still feels like there is just something missing. The film just feels a little less significant than it should. Despite its performances The Danish Girl will just have to settle for being a "good" movie not a great one.

Academy award-winning director Tom Hooper (The King’s Speech) reunites with his ‘Les Misérables’ alumnus and most recent Oscar-winning actor Eddie Redmayne, to bring us a heavily dramatized version of a real early 20th century story which couldn’t be more timely. Redmayne stars as turn-of-the-century Danish painter Einar Wegener whose long transition into Lily Elbe eventually culminated in one of the earliest examples of gender reassignment surgery, the core of the story is the unique love story between Wegener and his wife and fellow artist Gerda Gottlieb, played by Alicia Vikander, who remained remarkably loyal despite inevitably losing the man she married. ‘The Danish Girl’ benefits from an interesting and incredibly timely central theme which has become a major social talking point in 2015. Director Tom Hooper manages to effectively apply what is fast becoming his formula of stylish and emotional period-drama treatment which takes advantage of solid performances, impeccable production design and an evocative Alexandre Desplat musical score. While ‘The Danish Girl’ is certainly not the first film to deal with issues of transgenderism, it’s quite original in framing it as an issue of personality and gender identity rather than sexuality. While transgender people will view themselves as having been born in the wrong body, society may view it as a mental disorder (gender dysphoria), the point of a film like this is to build a bridge of acceptance between the way people view an issue that’s now part of the media landscape… and battle against judgment from both sides by having unsuppressed open discussion. ‘The Danish Girl’ is essentially a human story set in a time long ago, yet not that different from today, but it’s told with a narrative naivety which takes plenty of dramatic license and employs a bit too much artistic flair. Unsurprisingly when condensing a lifetime into two hours, the story deviates heavily from reality, but ‘The Danish Girl’ is ultimately let down by slick Hollywood sentimentality, despite being a European production, and the sanitizing of a far more painful and tragic story. The timing of the film may have been a fortunate coincidence, but the careful sculpting of a narrative that provides just a bit of shock but not enough to alienate the masses, and which pleases awards voters, is not. The Bottom Line… While benefiting from typically evocative sights and sounds which illuminate a historical and yet fascinatingly timely central theme, ‘The Danish Girl’ takes too much dramatic license while sanitizing a true story for public consumption, and only scratches the surface of a complex social issue.

While I loved The King's Speech, Tom Hooper's The Danish Girl is a dull, predictable, oscar-bait film, obviously jumping on the transgender hype train. Eddie Redmayne just doesn't work for me as an actor, especially playing a transgender woman. It's dull, lacking, and does not do the story justice.

The Danish Girl is not only classic Oscar bait, it is a wanna be Oscar bait film. Tom Hopper is officially one of the worst directors today. This stupid, boring, melodramatic trash is all about the actors trying to win an Oscar and a director who doesn't know what he's doing. Eddie Redmayne is hideous in this film as well.