Eddie Redmayne fresh from his Oscar win for playing Stephen Hawkins in The Theory of Everything tackles another complex, real life character Tom Hooper’s The Danish Girl. Redmayne plays Lili Elbe the first person to undergo transgender treatment and surgery.
The story focuses on the relationship artists Lili Elbe and Gerda Wegene. Lili and Gerda’s marriage and work evolve as Lili’s makes a groundbreaking journey as a transgender pioneer.
The script is by Lucinda Coxon who adapted David Eberhoff’s novel based on Elbe’s life which was published in 2000 but it has taken until now to bring the story to the screen.
The story begins in 1926 in Copenhagen. Einar Wegener played by Redmayne is married to Gerda Wegene played by Alicia Vikander. Both are artists but Gerda’s portraits aren’t selling while Einar has managed to build a career as a successful landscape painter.
Einar discovers the pleasure of dressing as a woman when Gerda asks him to put on silk stockings and women’s shoes as a model when their dancer friend Ulla played by Amber Heard does not show up for a sitting.
When Ulla does show up she is decides to call Einar who is dressed as a woman Lili thus giving a name to the female personality that will eventually become Einar’s alter ego.
Einar is confused about his sexual identity but eventually comes to realise that he is a woman trapped in a man’s body and that Lili was always there inside him somewhere.
Einar puts on women’s clothes again and becomes Lili to appear in public and he finds that he can pass as quite a beautiful woman and enjoys the attention. Everything becomes more complicated when Henirk played by Ben Whishaw is attracted to Lili and tries to kiss her. Gerda who has been supportive of Einar’s ventures into dressing as a woman is shocked.
While the script focuses on the love story between Einar/ Lili and Gerda and Gerda’s support for Einar’s decision to become the first person to undergo treatment and surgery to have his sex reassigned as a woman clearly this was not all plain sailing.
Einar is struggling with confusion over his identity but finally realises that he really is Lili and visits the first gender-confirmation surgeon the pioneering Dr Kurt Warnekros played by Sebastion Koch who agreed to treat Einar who will become the first person to undergo the treatment in history.
The script skips over the fact that in real life Gerda was bisexual which would have been an interesting point to explore as it makes a certain amount of sense out of the complicated emotions the couple experiences.
Redmayne looks set for another Oscar nomination with this extraordinary performance. The question was whether to cast a man or a woman to play Einar/Lili. But in opting for Redmayne the director has tapped into the actor’s androgynous qualities and Redmayne give a nuanced and extraordinary performance.

Credits:
The Danish Girl (USA, UK)
Directed by Tom Hooper
Cast: Eddie Redmayne, Alicia Vikander, Amber Heard, Sebastian Koch, Ben Whishaw, Matthias Schoenaerts