Mr. Movie: Transgender debate isn’t helped by ‘The Danish Girl’

Political correctness says I’m supposed to love this movie. I didn’t and don’t. Political correctness — I suppose — says I should also gush over the performances of the two actors and their supporting cast.

I won’t do that either, and my reasons have nothing to do with the subject matter.

With the buzz and press over the whole Caitlyn Jenner thing, the subject is one that grabs headlines. And we find ourselves caught up in defining and redefining sexuality, and the difficulties our society faces surrounding that redefinition. But when it comes to furthering that discussion in an intelligent way, The Danish Girl’s tedious telling of the tale, doesn’t.

Set in the 1920s, the film casts Eddie Redmayne and Alicia Vikander as Danish artists Einar and Gerda Wegener. She, at first with enthusiasm and later with reluctance, helps him with his transformation from male to female.

When a movie like this is released, Hollywood starts gushing. That is the only explanation I can offer as to why Redmayne (The Theory of Everything) is grabbing awards attention. It’s puzzling his nod-and-a-wink acting is flat and uninspired, and I just can’t see the buzz.

That brings us to director Tom Hooper’s (The King’s Speech) storytelling and Lucinda Coxon’s (The Heart of Me) lifeless, two-dimensional script. To be a transgendered individual — even in liberal Europe at the time — had to be difficult. But Hooper and Coxon never connect us personally to either character or connect us to their pain.

That — not the topic — is my complaint.

This story was originally published January 14, 2016 at 5:20 PM with the headline "Mr. Movie: Transgender debate isn’t helped by ‘The Danish Girl’."