By Suzanne A. Marshall from the March 2016 Edition
Starring: Eddie Redmayne, Alicia Vikander, Amber Heard
Director: Tom Hooper
“A fictitious love story loosely inspired by the lives of Danish artists Lili Elbe and Gerda Wegener. Lili and
Gerda’s marriage and work evolve as they navigate Lili’s groundbreaking journey as a transgender pioneer.”
Beautifully filmed on locations in Denmark this story takes us back to the nineteen twenties and thirties. The cinematography and costuming are equally as elegant and alluring as the performances. Alicia Vikander is simply amazing in her supporting role and is nominated for an Oscar. Eddie Redmayne ‘in this truly challenging role as ‘Lili’, is nominated for an Oscar yet again this year.
This is an amazing story. Based loosely on the diaries of ‘Lili’ it represents the emotional conflict of an individual born as a physical male yet feeling completely female from an emotional and psychological perspective. Or, one might say a female trapped in the body of a male. We are shown the intimate lives of these two artists as they struggle with the traditional aspects of a heterosexual marriage and friendship. As the story progresses, we watch “Lili” transform from play acting a female character for fun, to the evolving need to be the ‘woman’ being portrayed. Gerda herself, is caught between the loss of her ‘husband’ as she knows him, her love and compassion for ‘Lili’’ as a friend and a human being whom she loves unconditionally.
These are tender complicated portrayals by these actors and quite gut wrenchingly sad as they rearrange their lives and support each other until the bitter end.
IMDB rated this movie as 6.9/10 based on 35,800+ viewers. It’s better than this.
Download the full edition or view it online
—
Suzanne A. Marshall hails from western Canada and has been living the good life in Manzanillo over the past 8 years. She is a wife, mom and grandma. She is retired from executive business management where her writing skills focused on bureaucratic policy, marketing and business newsletters. Now she shares the fun and joy of writing about everyday life experiences in beautiful Manzanillo, Mexico, the country, its people, the places and the events.
