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TIFF 2015 Review: The Danish Girl
A timely biopic emerges from TIFF 2015 as one of the year's top Oscar contenders.
It’s an unfortunate truth that the Oscars are not always indicative of the year’s most impressive cinematic achievements. There’s an entirely separate, very political process that leads to a film, performer, director, etc. being nominated by Academy voters — a process that has little to do with the quality of the film or performance itself. Which is to say, the person who wins Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, even Best Adapted Screenplay isn’t necessarily the "best" that year had to offer; indeed, the best may arguably not have been nominated at all. Inevitably, this leads websites and magazines to unleash myriad lists of all the most egregious snubs.
In the month leading up to last February's ceremony, many critics threw their support behind the the universally acclaimed yet completely unacknowledged performance of David Oyelowo in Selma, as well as the indelibly dark efforts of Jake Gyllenhaal in Nightcrawler, to name just a couple.
But all of this preamble has been to emphasize that, even if there were some very worthy performances left off the voting card, 2015 was one case in which it’s tough to argue with the ultimate winner. Eddie Redmayne’s immersive portrayal of physicist Stephen Hawking’s lifelong battle with ALS in The Theory of Everything was a feat for the ages.
Whether or not fortune smiles on the young Brit again at the 2016 gala, he has, without question, reached the same giddy heights in The Danish Girl. And he’s done so by bringing to life another groundbreaking figure. In this case, it's Einar Wegener, a real-life Dutch painter who though born a man wound up striking an early blow for transgender rights, in a time when doing so meant exposing yourself not only to social stigma, but imprisonment and lobotomy.
Alicia Vikander and Eddie Redmayne walk the red carpet at TIFF 2015.
Photo Credit: TIFF via Getty
We open on Einar in the 1920s, as he enjoys a thriving career and loving marriage to fellow artist Gerda (Alicia Vikander), before long-buried desires begin to manifest. What begins as a silly game of dress-up for a gala — a prank shared between husband and wife — gradually evolves into something much more profound. Despite being born with the body of a man, Einar has always, at heart, been a woman, a fact he’s understandably felt forced to bury. But no more.
What ensues is a tumultuous journey of self-discovery, as this celebrated artist tentatively turns his talents to the heretofore unexplored canvas of his own body — beginning with new clothes and make-up before moving on to exciting new romantic flirtations and, eventually, one of the world’s first sexual reassignment surgeries.
Much as he brought to bear Stephen Hawking’s unimaginable physical devastation and mental fortitude, Redmayne embodies Wegener’s particular brand of turmoil in indelibly raw fashion. It’s an undeniably juicy role, packed with pain, sorrow, confusion, hope, elation, bitterness and more. What makes Redmayne’s portrayal of it so memorable is that there are times where he seems to embody all of them at once. As in The Theory of Everything, his face alone presents a remarkably detailed portrait of the pain and resilience within.
Rising star Alicia Vikander could find herself with an Oscar nom this February.
Photo Credit: TIFF via Getty
But then, The Danish Girl is more than just Einar’s story. Gerda is just as much the protagonist, an open-minded woman who struggles to help her husband find his true self, despite the slowly creeping awareness that doing so means giving up her partner. Swedish actress Vikander has been dipping her toe into Hollywood with films like Ex Machina and The Man From U.N.C.L.E. It wouldn’t surprise me if this winds up being her breakthrough; from the outset, Gerda is much more self-assured than her husband, which makes the vulnerability that seeps into her life following Einar’s revelation that much more intriguing. Despite an inherently less eye-catching performance than her co-star, Vikander is just as engaging; despite the film being named after Redmayne’s character, walking out the cinema in Toronto, people were talking about her.
Equally striking is the work of British helmer Tom Hooper, who first caught our eye with 2010’s The King’s Speech. Despite snagging Anne Hathaway an Oscar, his follow-up effort, 2012’s Les Misérables, was dubbed a garish, fisheye-lens-heavy misstep by some observers. You can consider The Danish Girl a step back in the right direction, as the director uses his talent for sumptuous visuals to turn the film's mis-en-scène into a series of gorgeously wrought paintings for his tortured artists to play out their personal drama.
Director Tom Hooper at TIFF 2015.
Photo Credit: TIFF via Getty
Even if the film does occasionally fall into the trap that oh-so-many biopics do of being a touch too safe and straightforward in its telling of a life so inevitably complex and messy, it’s too strikingly shot and powerfully acted to leave its audience anything but moved.
Main Image Photo Credit: TIFF
Matthew Currie
Author
A long-standing entertainment journalist, Currie is a graduate of the Professional Writing program at Toronto’s York University. He has spent the past number of years working as a freelancer for ANOKHI and for diverse publications such as Sharp, TV Week, CAA’s Westworld and BC Business. Currie ...
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