The Danish Girl

Director Tom Hooper and writer Lucinda Coxon present a measured adaptation of David Ebershoff's novel, which in turn fictionalized the true story of Lili Elbe (Eddie Redmayne)—born Einar Magnus Andreas Wegener—who in 1930 became one of the first persons, maybe the very first, to undergo gender reassignment surgery. The movie focuses on the understandably complex relationship between Wegener/Elbe and his/her[[[should we just say “they” or recast?]]] wife Gerda (Alicia Vikander), and Redmayne and Vikander share an earnest screen rapport. Hooper and Coxon honor Elbe (who died in 1931 from complications of her fourth and final surgery) as a pioneer of the transgender movement, but measured and reverent as the movie is, it's also rather dreary, the kind of embalmed, oversolemn opus where the actors whisper their lines slowly, one word at a time. J.L.