What a drag…
THE DANISH GIRL, based on the best selling book of the same name by David Ebershoff, has been in development as a motion picture for at least 7 years. Back in 2009 it was touted that Nicole Kidman and Charlize Theron were to star, presumably Kidman to play the part of the trans-gender Lilly? Maybe vice versa.
The finished product has opted for Eddie Redmayne to play the male landscape artist, Einer Wegener who desires a gender reassignment with Alicia Vikander as his portrait painter wife, Gerda.
Taking a cue from the couples painterly profession, director Tom Hooper has decided to frame the picture in highly stylised artistic artifice which tends to blanch the narrative of drama or honesty.
And so the picture comes across as obvious Oscar bait rather than a picture with an integrity of its own.
Oscar has swallowed, almost hook line and sinker, but has stopped short of bestowing a Best Picture nomination.
Winner of last year’s Oscar for Best Performance by An Actor in a Lead Role, Eddy Redmayne has been given a chance of a second bite at the cherry, however, this time around, he’ll be pipped. All he seems to do in this picture is grin, giggle and cry.
Alicia Vikander has been nominated for Best Performance by an Actress in A Supporting Role – outrageous – she’s as much a co star as Redmayne and deserves leading role status. Indeed, she is a far more interesting and stronger character than her wimpish spouse.
Ironic that the film has been nominated, more for its sentiment as the civilised world moves towards sanctioning same sex wedlock, than for film making excellence, and then adopts a stance of male gender dominance and superiority.
Actually, the film is about male dominance, in a way. Einer demands that his feelings come first, that he must be allowed to forsake their marriage, but that Gerda must support him in his new life. This includes swanning about with men while presenting as Lilly, tantamount to having an affair. There seems to be little emotional care for Gerda from this chauvinist, self centred creature.
The film seems to be more a study of male narcissism and female subjugation but flubs its fetishism for fear it will scare the Academy horses.
THE DANISH GIRL is the sort of film critic Andrew O’Hagan railed against at the turn of this century, saying “movies are all about illusion, and the greatest illusion of them all is the illusion of quality.”
THE DANISH GIRL, like its protagonist, doesn’t make the cut.