The Danish Girl (2015)

This movie appeared among the options on Netflix. I vaguely recalled that this was one of the Oscar nominees years ago, so I decided to watch it and see if it's an interesting story... particularly since I've been to Copenhagen and to Solvang and the movie was entitled The Danish Girl.

As I watched Eddie Redmayne portray the tormented landscape artist Einar Wegener and Alicia Vikander portray his wife, Gerda (who did portraits), I started to understand what the buzz was all about. It turns out that the movie followed Einar's struggle for identity... he was a woman trapped in a man's body. This was what he (and the audience) realised when he relished the experience of posing for Gerda wearing women's clothes. He even consulted with medical doctors to determine if something was wrong with him. Gradually and eventually irreversibly, Einar transformed into Lili Elbe, the personification of his feminine self; Gerda, of course, had to struggle through the whole process as well because she literally saw her husband vanish, being replaced by a totally new person, abandoning her. Lili was immersing himself into this new life; but to ultimately become a woman, he decided to have sex reassignment surgery. It was an extremely risky series of surgeries and she died of complications. Through these trying times, Lili and Gerda were supported by Lili's childhood friend, Hans.

It was heartbreaking to see someone struggle while searching for one's identity and find acceptance for it. I couldn't help but think about Joey Mead King (a tv host and model) and her husband Ian (a businessman and car collector); they faced a similar situation when the husband transformed into a woman. But the world that the Kings live in is more accepting and open-minded than the 1920s of the Wegeners. Einar was diagnosed as being a mentally ill patient while Ian was surrounded by people who love him throughout the process.

On the flip side, it was also a struggle to watch Gerda as she watched everything unfold and there was nothing she could do to stop losing her husband. She was there during the surgeries and up until the end. Perhaps, Joey went through similar challenges but remained supportive of her husband. 

It's unfortunate that Lili died before she could really experience what being a woman was like during the 1920s. He was just about to discover and the chance was snagged away from him. I think this is where the story shows its strength. We'd never know who Lili was as a woman because she was gone too soon.

It's like a caterpillar undergoing metamorphosis; but as it attempts to leave the cocoon, it dies before the world could see how beautiful its wings were.