Editor’s Note: If you do not want to know the end of the movie, do not read this article.
In response to the current international transgender awareness movement, perhaps made most visible by Caitlyn Jenner’s widely publicized gender transition, Hollywood has produced a film depicting the beginnings of the movement. Tom Hooper’s film, The Danish Girl, is a biography of Lili Elbe (Eddie Redmayne) who underwent the first gender reassignment surgery in the early twentieth century. Throughout her transition, Lili is supported by her (eventually ex-)wife Gerda Wegener (Alicia Vikander), childhood friend Hans Axgil (Matthias Schoenaerts) and Ulla Paulson, a close friend (Amber Heard).
The film represents the transition of identity well. It is clear that Lili struggles emotionally between society’s expectations and her own internal desire to live openly as Lili instead of as Einar. The film’s narrative makes it easy for the viewer to understand the path that she is traveling.
As the film opens, it introduces us to Einar and Gerda. Einar, wearing a suit to work every day, is an established painter, while Gerda still struggles to find success in the art world. The film then moves into the beginning of Einar’s questioning. When Gerda needs to finish a portrait and her scheduled model fails to attend their session, Einar dresses in women’s attire to model for her and feels comfortable in the women’s gown. Initially framed as just a game, Einar dresses as a model, Lili, to the next party the coupe attends. After Lili becomes a public figure thanks to Gerda’s artwork, she wants to permanently have the body with which she identifies. Because the audience watches all these little steps along the way, we understand her decision to undergo surgery. Hopper depicts and emphasizes Lil’s internal struggles as well as her struggles to gain acceptance in society. With Gerda’s support, she meets with multiple doctors. One decides she is gay, another thinks she is crazy and another concludes she is schizophrenic. The camera flashes from doctor’s conclusion to doctor’s conclusion, conveying Lili’s struggle to find someone who understands her. Only after a friend suggests that she see a sexual science doctor does Lili find a physician who truly understands her.
The only real issue I have with the film is the ending. Lili dies after a failed operation to implant a uterus in her abdomen because science was not advanced enough at the time to account for hormone rejection. When Lili dies, both Gerda and Hans, her two biggest supporters, are present. After Lili dies, Gerda and Hans return to the place where she grew up. Gerda lets the scarf that Lili wore through her surgeries fly off in the wind, an action that feels too much like they are holding hands and dancing into the sunset. The scarf represents the struggle that Lili endures. By letting the wind take control at the end, the film seems to say that the human effort is not as strong as nature. This scene contradicts the film’s whole message because Lili’s story is one of human will conquering nature’s design. It is a misleading ending.
Despite my issue with the ending, I enjoyed the film and appreciated its efforts to demonstrate some of the challenges that transgender individuals may face, both today and historically. At a time when transgender experiences and rights are being more widely discussed, it is important and significant that Hollywood has chosen to engage in the conversation. The film industry can have a significant impact on society’s perception of the topics that it chooses to cover, so I am glad that Hooper portrayed Lili’s story in the way that he did. •
