FILM OF THE WEEK The Danish Girl
The wonderful thing about Eddie Redmayne’s Oscar-winning performance in The Theory Of Everything was that it was totally invisible: you really couldn’t see where Redmayne ended and Stephen Hawking began. Even Hawking himself admitted he was confused. The slightly disappointing thing about Redmayne’s performance in The Danish Girl is that you really can see the acting. In his portrayal of the transgender Danish artist who was born Einar Wegener in 1882 but who died as Lili Elbe in 1931 every simper, every pout, every bashful flutter of the eyes seems to be played out on the big screen at length. It’s ‘look at me’ acting straight out of the ‘aren’t I clever, I’m playing a woman?’ school and, if I’m honest, ever so slightly tiresome.
Director Tom Hooper, who’s had such triumphs in recent years with both The King ’s Speech and Les Misérables, has over-indulged his leading man here, although it has to be said this type of big performance does tend to secure award nominations, particularly when the subject of gender confusion is involved.
Hilary Swank won her first Oscar for her performance as a young woman who passed herself off as a man in Boys Don’t Cry and only two years ago Jared Leto won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor as a transgender woman in Dallas Buyers Club. Throw in Felicity Huffman for Transamerica, Jaye Davidson for The Crying Game and John Lithgow for The World According To Garp – all of whom won Oscar nominations for their portrayal of transgender characters – and you can see what a long tradition there is of Oscar voters being impressed by this sort of performance, despite the growing clamour for transgender roles to be played by transgender actors.
So I shan’t be surprised at all if the likeable Redmayne picks up major award nominations for The Danish Girl – and even wins one or two. I just won’t think it’s particularly deserved. He’s been better in other things and needs to remember that when it comes to filmacting, a little bit less is always a little bit more.
The performer who really does deserve every nomination she gets for her wonderful turn in the film, however, is Alicia Vikander. She must have been in half a dozen movies last year – Ex Machina and Testament Of Youth being two of the better known – but it is only really here, playing Einar’s long-suffering wife, Gerda, that we finally see what the fuss about the hotly tipped young Swedish actress is all about.
If Redmayne’s performance as Einar/Lili is all artifice and mannerisms, Vikander’s turn as Gerda is an understated, naturalistic delight. She really couldn’t be any more convincing as the spirited, headstrong, thoroughly modern young woman – an artist in her own right – who, as the film begins has already become Einar’s wife.
It is Gerda, short of a model and anxious to complete a painting of a dancer, who asks her husband to put on the dancer’s stocking and shoes so that she can capture the line. As he slips into the unfamiliar feminine garments, it is clearly a life-transforming moment. Later one of Gerda’s petticoats is added. ‘It’s pretty,’ observes Einar. ‘I might let you borrow it,’ replies Gerda mischievously. ‘I might enjoy that,’ says her husband. ‘Is there something you want to tell me?’ she asks, suddenly concerned. Not yet, there isn’t, but soon.
The journey from Einar to Lili, which begins with a visit to a Copenhagen ball at which the newly created Lili is passed off as Einar’s cousin, has begun.
The opening third of what is a fictionalised and, I suspect, romanticised, version of Einar and Gerda’s extraordinary story is fun. Vikander makes the lively and likeable Gerda a completely believable character, while Redmayne’s delicate features are undoubtedly heaven-sent for this kind of role. But from the moment Lili makes her first public appearance – fully made-up and wearing a red wig – and I found myself thinking ‘Oh, doesn’t he/she look like a young Quentin Crisp?’ interest levels began to flag a little.
After all, we live in a world where cross-dressing artists and comedians (Grayson Perry, Eddie Izzard) and transgender celebrities (Caitlyn Jenner) have become almost commonplace. Elbe may have been a pioneer