Working Title Films, Artémis Productions, Kvinde Films,
Eddie Redmayne, Alicia Vikander, Ben Whishaw, Sebastian Koch, Amber Heard, Matthias Schoenaerts
Gerda Wegener (Alicia Vikander) is a Danish painter. She paints her husband, Einar (Eddie Redmayne) in woman’s clothing, and is beginning to gain attention as a popular artist. But Einar is finding himself more and more comfortable as Lili, his female character that he developed, and he finds he is losing himself and becoming more and more Lili. Since childhood, Einar has felt different and as if he was really a woman trapped in a man’s body. Seeking help, all the professionals declare him insane and try to cure him by driving the desire to be female out of his head. But through the love of his wife, Gerda, he is able to find a German doctor who is anxious to try doing a two surgery process to change Einar into Lili permanently. At this point in time, it’s heresy and is unacceptable to society, and especially the religious community.
This is a startling love story that is really sweet and well done. Based on the diary that Lili kept, and published after her death, this story really shows the great amount of love between these two. It’s sad as Gerta is losing her husband, but she’s willing to do anything to make him/her happy. Eddie Redmayne was nominated as Best Actor for his role in this film, but it was his co-star who rightfully won the Best Supporting Actress award for her role as Gerda. She really was able to pull off this role and was spectacular and certainly deserved it. But I think she was probably the best part of this movie. She really nailed it, and her range of emotional scenes from love, to despair, to worry, to desperation, she covered them all. This was a really well written script, and filmed in a way to leave the touching moments alone while still showing the terrifying parts. This is an unusual tale, and like one of the filmmakers stated in the extra features, it’s amazing that it has remained hidden this long as it is a really powerful story. Despite the R rating, this is a good film, and I can recommend it for mature audiences.
EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog
