Member review

The Danish Girl explores thought-provoking themes. It was inspired by real-life Danish artists and couple Einar Wegener/Lili Elbe (Eddie Redmayne) and Gerda Gottlieb (Alicia Vikander). The film portrays Lili Elbe's tentative journey from living as a married man, Einar Wegener to discovering his true self as a female, Lili Elbe. Einar gradually becomes aware that he was actually a she, born into the incorrect biological body. In one scene Gerda asked her husband, Einar, to model for an unfinished painting because actual model was unavailable. It seems that putting on a pair of stockings and heels awakened something deeply buried within Einar. He made the transition from Einar to Lili over time. In the film it seemed as if Lili was almost his alter ego until he began openly living as Lili prior to gender reassignment surgery. This journey was not without a great deal of trauma. Einar went to many doctors to be "cured". The torment Einar must have experienced at their hands would have been horrendous. In the 1920s in Europe a transgender person was considered to be perverted or clinically insane. Eventually Lili found a compassionate doctor willing to carry out reassignment surgery. The surgery was very experimental. Complications following surgery were not uncommon. This section of the film was really moving and very well acted. The film portrayed a deep, but increasingly turbulent and torn love between the couple. I felt the film left much so much unsaid. Einar's struggle to become Lilli seemed a bit understated at times. I was also left wondering what Gerda’s side of the story really looked like, in what was clearly a heartbreaking period of their lives.