The Danish Girl (2015/16)

Cast: Eddie Redmayne, Alicia Vikander

Director: Tom Hooper

Length: 1hr 59mins

Genre: Biography, Drama, Romance

UK Release Date: 1st January 2016

Rating: 12A

IMDB Summary: A fictitious love story inspired by the lives of Danish artists Lili Elbe and Gerda Wegener. Lili and Gerda’s marriage and work evolve as they navigate Lili’s groundbreaking journey as a transgender pioneer.

My Rating: ★★★★★

Where do I start? Before I even sat down to watch this film I knew I would love it and I knew it would be an Oscar contending movie, but even I was not fully prepared for just how mindblowingly beautiful this entire movie was.

I was captivated from the very beginning of the movie. The way this movie has been shot is totally gorgeous. The scenes are wide, full of gorgeous scenery and the colours are rich and captivating. I couldn’t stop thinking about how aesthetically pleasing this movie was, something I always long to see. Tom Hooper’s creative eye has really set this movie apart from a lot of the movies I saw in 2015. Visually this movie reminded me a lot of The King’s Speech, another film I am totally obsessed with.

The movie is an adaptation of the book The Danish Girl by David Ebershoff, a book that is on my tbr for the first quarter of this year. The story follows the relationship of husband and wife Einar and Gerda Wegener and their passion for art and most of all, their undying love for one another. After accidentally stumbling upon the truth that Einar feels that he should have been born a woman, The Danish Girl follows Gerda and, the newly named, Lili as Lili embarks on the journey to becoming a woman. The real beauty of this film is the remarkable relationship portrayed by Eddie Redmayne and Alicia Vikander. They are both truly remarkable in this movie. Not once did I find myself questioning the relationship between the characters, it was so painful, so emotional and so raw that I almost forgot I was watching a movie.

I won’t spoil it for people who may not have read the book or seen the movie yet, but the ending well and truly finished me off. It was so full of emotion and I was left feeling both sadness and happiness.

With Redmayne and Vikander both already having received Best Actor and Actress nominations for the Golden Globes and the Screen Actors Guild Award, I think it’s a guarantee that they will top the list of potential Academy Award nominees this year. For me, it’s going to take quite some performance to persuade me that these two people should not win every award this coming Awards Season.

Watch the trailer below and, if you have time, please go and see this wonderful movie in the cinema.

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