January 1st in Chicago, IL. This picture is loosely based on the life of Danish painter Einar Wegener who is one of the first people to undergo sexual reassignment surgery in the late 1920's to become Lili Elbe. The source material was a book of the same name written by David Ebershoff in 2000. The film is directed by Tom Hooper (King's Speech) and stars Eddie Redmayne as Einar/Lilii and the beautiful Alicia Vikander as Einar's wife Gerda Wegener.
The film opens up in 1926 Copenhagen, Einar is a successful landscape artist and Gerda is a struggling portrait painter. They are a very happy and loving couple but haven't been able to start a family. They're invited to an artists party but Einar doesn't want to go. Gerda suggests dressing up as a woman to have some fun. Except Einar kind of enjoys it. This puts a bit of a strain on their marriage. Slowly Einar becomes more immersed in the identity of "Lili." It actually solidifies when Gerda begins sketching Einar as Lili and becomes a sought after painter and goes to Paris. In Paris, Einar seeks help for his "ailment" but the "treatment" suggestions are horrifying to say the least. Gerda is able to locate Einar's childhood friend Hans (Matthias Schoenaerts) and enlists him to try and help Einar.
Einar accepts that he is a woman trapped in a man's body and completely discards Einar and becomes Lili. Her only choice is to have a series of dangerous procedures of sexual reassignment surgery. Gerda stays with Lili and they remain devoted to each other. After the first surgery, Lili starts her new life in Copenhagen and gets a job at the perfume counter at a department store. She decides to have the 2nd procedure to complete the transformation and dies in the arms of Gerda due to complications.
This picture is art house fare and is definitely not for everyone. Redmayne is very good as Einar/Lili and I wouldn't be surprised if he gets a Best Actor nomination. Vikander is brilliant as the wife who stays with Einar/Lili until the end (even rebuffing the subtle advances of the very handsome Hans, though to be fair Hans could see that Gerda was very distraught and wanted to comfort her). Lili draws strength from Gerda throughout the process. Hooper does a really good job of setting in motion the events that change Einar. First he stands in for Gerda when her model is unable to attend a sitting and he realizes that enjoys wearing the silky nylons. He then takes a liking to a night dress that Gerda wears to bed. There's a scene when the two are getting amorous and Gerda discovers that Einaris wearing the dress under his clothes. She goes with it and they make very passionate love. I did think it was weird that the answer to Lili's problems would be found in late Twenties Germany of all places.
This is a fine film with some great performances and some excellent cinematography and color usage. Hooper and his production team do a great job with sets and costumes. This is an all-around good film that received a 71% on Rotten Tomatoes but I though it was a little better than that.
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