The Danish Girl
Tom Hooper’s beautiful, humane and moving biopic of the transgender artist Lili Elbe, who worked during the early part of the 20th century and was one of the first people to undergo sex reassignment surgery, may not be the most obvious next step for the director of The King’s Speech and Les Misérables. Those are elegant, gilded, crowd-pleasing films of a type often called "easy watches" – and on the surface, there’s nothing easy about Lili’s plight.
Long before Hooper arrived on the scene, this film was to be directed by one of two Swedish filmmakers, Tomas Alfredson and Lasse Hallström, either of whom might have made the kind of wincing, austere, fingernail-picking drama the film’s subject matter suggests. (Nicole Kidman was also attached to play Lili.) But Hooper’s involvement makes it a far more daring proposition – because he has no interest in making a daring film. His clear-eyed, tasteful storytelling makes Lili’s struggle as easy to grasp as if she were a loveable prince played by Colin Firth. That doesn’t just make The Danish Girl watchable. It makes it revolutionary.
But there’s depth to be had if you’re looking for it, and tellingly unfaithful reflections – of people, landscapes, intentions – are everywhere. Even out in the Scandinavian wilds, where the film begins, a wind-whipped lake twists trees into new and beautiful shapes – while in Copenhagen and Paris, Einar catches muddy glimpses of himself in foxed-glass mirrors and smudged windows.
The film’s secret weapon is Vikander, who’s been blessed with a role that has no truck whatsoever with the usual supportive wife banalities – at points she’s effectively its lead character. The Swedish actress glides into the film after a ludicrously busy 2015, in which she bounced between lead roles in Ex Machina and Testament of Youth, did fine supporting work in The Man From UNCLE, and even made a dignified cameo in the otherwise dignity-phobic chef drama Burnt. But here she’s better than ever – hungry, energised, up on the balls of her feet, and an equally convincing awards prospect. (Like Redmayne, she’s already been nominated for a Golden Globe, with surely more nominations to follow.)
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