The Danish Girl (Tom Hooper, 2015)

[Professor Wagstaff]

Tom Hooper's The Danish Girl

[domino harvey]

Looks every bit like paint by the numbers prestige cinema ala the movie Eddie Redmayne won his first Oscar for (and let's be honest, this movie is going to have to be awful to not repeat that feat based on the relevant cultural zeitgeist alone)

[mfunk9786]

Tom Hooper seemed to be somewhat onto something with John Adams and The King's Speech, and has an interesting visual style from time to time. But my goodness, his attraction to banal, ice-cold [as domino said] prestige projects is so tiresome.

[ianungstad]

Hooper still beats the last director that was attached to this project : Lasse Hallstrom.

[mfunk9786]

Six of one, a half dozen of the other.

[domino harvey]

Well, in the words of one of the greatest taglines ever, it's exactly what you think it is. Buuuut, as far as soulless Oscar bait goes, this was admittedly pretty good. Redmayne is frankly pretty annoying with his "shy" tics running rampant, but the desaturated cool tone catches him and everything else in a languid pallor befitting the basic sadness of the narrative, and his over-affectated take never quite derails the film like it could in a less catatonic picture. Vikander is anonymous and was rewarded with an Oscar for the character not the perf (and as a bow to an inexplicably banner year). Every time I found myself finding something nice to praise, the film defaulted to an expected beat or note, and the movie could have used more scenes like its best moment wherein Redmayne visits a peep show and mirrors the actions of the stripper so as to replicate the experience of looking in a mirror. That's a visually evocative and effective exploration of the internal struggle. But again, most scenes are closer in spirit to Redmaybe giggling while watching Amber Heard's fellow ballerinas. So, ultimately, this is an okay, three star, never need to see this movie again experience. How's that for a rave?

[knives]

Dom's take is basically right. This isn't great cinema, but it also isn't the transphobic Driving Miss Daisy horror show some have made it out to be. My understanding of the real story is that it is far more interesting than what we get here. Along with that the critique that, essentially, this is a movie with the intended audience as the most hegemonic person imaginable is deadly accurate with Elbe's emotions largely left to the side in favor of her wife's. That said progress includes making this hegemonic individual to understand those outside of their experience. That's a perfectly valid goal morally thus leaving the question only if the movie is good. I'd say mostly. Hopper gives the film a sense of light Tim Burton or at least the cartoonishness of '90s English cinema like Life is Sweet or Consuming Passions. So to say the least it's a beautiful film. It also constructs its drama quite well allowing a great deal of cruelty expressed by its lead and even towards her as she often hurts Elbe. Vikander is often better then the film is acting circles around her co-star who is the film's one consistently bad element, but there's enough quality around her that the win doesn't entirely fall into Richard Dreyfus territory. So in short as a politically or socially progressive film this is mediocre at best, but given that it is not awful aside from Redmayne on that account its overall agree ability as a film shouldn't be as denigrated as it has been.

[Roscoe]

How many shots of Eddie Redmayne SMILING THROUGH TEARS can be crammed into a single movie? Only Tom Hooper knows for sure.

[Big Ben]

To be honest the only thing I think this film will be remembered for is it's Oscar win. I wasn't really wowed by it nor was I disappointed. It just sort of exists.

As for the controversy it's due in part to a growing push for trans actors to play trans parts (See the recent controversy with Matt Bomer for more information), which I think is an entirely relevant complaint. Do I personally feel the film is transphobic? Not really but I think my ability to opine on that is limited. I don't think it'll be remembered thirty years down the road. Three stars. Just like Domino said.

[thirtyframesasecond]

I still don't get how Tom Hooper possibly could've made The Damned United, although to be fair he focused more on the bromance between Brian Clough and Peter Taylor rather than actually what made Clough tick.