Focus Features
I have no doubt that The Danish Girl is, in some quarters, an important film. It feels like it when watching it, like it’s some event, meant to be a triumph. You’ve got an Oscar-winning star taking on a complex transformation once again, the kind of physical acting that makes some film fans swoon. You’ve got a story based on true life, but one that feels almost mythical.
All these ingredients are there, but they never quite come together in satisfying ways. Yes, Eddie Redmayne transforming into a woman will gain plenty of attention, and yes, the issues of the transgendered community are becoming more and more part of general discourse and this film will play a role in fostering the discussion. Still, all these elements seem to mask the fact that in the end the film feels a little cold, a little austere, a little like it’s trying too hard to draw out its storyline into a feature running length.
One thing that’s not a limitation is how the thing looks – lensed by David Cohen, there’s sumptuousness to the photography that’s at times breathtaking. Shots of Copenhagen and Paris take on painterly compositions, reminding at times of Stanley Kubrick’s mastery. Beautiful, lingering shots of architecture with delightful symmetry make the setting of the tale one that’s truly inviting.
Redmayne is perfectly fine, yet it’s Alicia Vikander who does most of the non-showy emotional lifting. Her role has to toe a fine line as she proves to be accepting of the tumultuous changes in her relationship, and she does so without a hint of one simply reacting passively. In a year where she stole the limelight in a fun but slight action movie (Man from U.N.C.L.E.) and a sci-fi thriller (Ex Machina) Vikander is proving to be one of the most diverse and accomplished performers of her generation.
To its credit Tom Hooper’s film manages to stave off the melodrama until the third act, where the film pretty much devolves into being the film you think it’s going to be from the outset. On the way we do have some detours that entertain, some zigs that zag in ways that manage to lightly surprise. Otherwise you’re getting pretty much exactly what one would expect from a period drama, save that for this one you’ve got a lead character overwrought by inner turmoil that’s made more complicated given the social stigma.
For a film where a central character becomes what they’ve always felt themselves to be it’s hard to get past the performative elements, and harder to see how it could be otherwise. It’s maybe unfair to expect this from Redmayne, but it always feels like he’s playing at playing a woman rather than simply being the character, always fixated on the movements and shadowing of those around, calling attention to being, rather than simply inhabiting the character without calling to attention the act of inhabitation. It’s a subtle thing, I grant, but the constant preening reminds one of a man wearing a costume rather than a woman shedding her mask of masculinity, and while that may be too impossible to call for a fiction film to pull off, it still doesn’t help with succumbing to the illusion being presented in the work.
As a showcase for some stunning photography and wonderful supporting performances The Danish Girl will deservedly get plenty of attention. Yes, its narrative is compelling, and Redmayne may well have pulled this off about as well as can be expected. Yet, churlishly perhaps, I would have hoped for more from this film, more than what feels like a rote melodrama, more from what looks positively beautiful on the outside but doesn’t have as much going on within as one could have hoped for.
The Upside: Jaw dropping cinematography; Another knockout performance by Vikander
The Downside: Predictable; Redmayne never quite inhabits the role
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