After seeing Eddie Redmayne in the “Theory of Everything,” it’s unsurprising he won the Oscar for best picture for his stunning transformation as Steven Hawking. Though I have yet to see any of the other actors or film nominated, Redmayne stands a good chance of wining yet again for his portrayal of Einar Wegener transitioning into Lili Elbe in “The Danish Girl.”
The film centers on painters Einar and Gerda Wegener, played by Alicia Vikander. After Einar is coerced into modeling a dress for his wife’s painting, Einar slowly begins transitioning into Lili Elbe, the subject of Gerda’s popular art collection.
Redmayne’s performance was definitely one of the only interesting portions of the film that had an incredibly slow plot. His portrayal of Einar’s discomfort with his own skin was very well done as was his comfort playing Lili, even if a few great scenes were buried in a very long film, such as when Lili had to cope with hostile doctors.
In a film that was about two hours, I couldn’t help feeling bored. Perhaps this is because my Marvel-loving mind is now hardwired to only enjoy large action scenes and an overdrawn and overly stimulating plots, but I still felt as though eventually I was attempting to stay awake. This makes me think there have got to be more interesting stories of transgender people from history that Hollywood simply isn’t covering. For example, how about a historically accurate movie about the Stonewall riots that were started by transgender women of color?
Don’t get me wrong; I’m incredibly overjoyed Hollywood is finally recognizing transgender people and their stories, but like all of the movies featuring LGBT people in 2015 (“Carol,” “Freeheld,” “Jenny’s Wedding,” to name a few), all of the leading characters are white. This isn’t just in LGBT movies, though. There’s a reason the Academy decided last week to make the organization more diverse.
Along with not being the most exciting story, just like in the “Theory of Everything,” the main character never really thanks their support system, their wives. Vikander does a great job of playing Gerda Wegener, a wife trying to navigate the fact that just like her former husband, her life is changing all around her. Lili never thanks her former wife for standing by her through her transition and for being so supportive.
Though Redmayne’s Oscar-worthy performance is worth watching, the film’s lackluster plot probably means waiting for the film to come on Netflix or Redbox.