The Danish Girl

We've seen films based on novels all too many times, and we've seen a plethora of films which are fictional. But have you ever seen a film that is fictitious, but at the same time based on two real people? Yeah, I thought so, I'd never seen that combination myself, but "The Danish Girl" gives us that incredible combination.

Copenhagen, 1926. This is a fictitious love story inspired by the lives and work of two artists. Danish artist, Gerda Wegener (Alicia Vikander), painted her own husband, Einar Wegener (Eddie Redmayne), as a lady in her painting when her female model had to cancel her posing sit. When the painting gained popularity, Einar started to change, albeit slow, subtle, but changed and eventually decided to change to a female appearance and named himself Lili Elbe. With his feminine passion and ultimately Gerda's support, Einar, or Lili, attempted one of the first male-to-female gender reassignment surgery, a decision that turned into a massive change for their marriage. Even when she contacted a childhood friend of Einar, art dealer Hans Axgil (Matthias Schoenaerts) to talk with Einar, Gerda soon realized her own husband is no longer the man or the person she married before.

Others to round out the cast are Ben Whishaw as Henrik, Amber Heard as Ulla, friend of the couple, Jake Graf as Henri, Nicholas Woodeson as Dr. Buson and Adrian Schiller as Rasmussen.

This was brilliantly directed by the consummate Tom Hooper ("Red Dust" '04, "Longford"  (TV movie) '06, "The Damned United" '09, "The King's Speech" '10, "Les Miserables" '12) plus shorts and TV. As one can see, this isn't a huge resume, but the quality is first rate. His pacing and staging in this was spot on as was the way he was able to get his actors to emit such pathos and emotion where they needed to be. This filmmaker definitely proved himself with his direction on "The King's Speech", and since then, I have had a special admiration for this true professional. Surprisingly, the writing by David Ebershoff ("The 19th Wife" (TV movie) '10) was amazing. I say surprising, because the film mentioned is his only experience in films at all, and this screenplay was phenomenal. Where did this guy come from? The script was incredibly cohesive, and the fluidity was unsurpassed. Not only will this writer be nominated come Oscar time, he will undoubtedly receive more work. This is as good or better writing than I've seen from most seasoned writers in this biz. This is certainly one of those examples where more experience doesn't necessarily mean better. The film was based on the novel by Lucinda Coxon.

Even though I'm not expressly interested in the subject matter here--don't attempt to mess with nature, I still can see a sure fire amazingly well crafted film in my midst. Redmayne and Vikander will also receive Oscar nods as well, because their performances were perfection. Enjoy this gem--I know I did.

Out of 4 Stars: 4                                 Rated: R                                   119mins.