Took me some time to get to this movie. It has its plus side being the story of transgender pioneer Lili Elbe (né Eynar Wegener)
, an artist who decides that he is a woman and is one of the first to undergo the surgery to become a woman in the 20s and 30s last century.
Throughout this process, he has the support of his wife Gerda, also a talented artist 
and her love and acceptance is part of the features here. In reality, the couple were older when Elbe underwent surgery and eventually died after an attempt to implant a uterus during the 5th operation. Much of this is left out of the film, because director Tom Hooper and scriptwriter Lucinda Coxon take a glossy approach to the material.
It has been sanitized in a sort of Merchant Ivory way, beautifully artistic and pallid settings representing Denmark, Paris and Dresden, a rather discreet script (none of the real trials nor earthiness you might expect) and a safe and slow direction. A few more gripping scenes survive but I found it dragged and was less than compelling. Eddie Redmayne is first class as Eynar/Lili but we get little real character development. Alicia Vikander
gives us more as Gerda in a very good performance and Matthias Schoenaerts has a nice smaller intervention as Hans, the childhood friend.
I would have like to have seen a gutsier, more straight up version of the story which must have been absolutely revolutionary for its time and not this safe art-house film.
★★★
By no means great but better than quite a few recent ones. First because it is beautifully filmed by Vittorio Storaro. Secondly, there is a competent cast led by Jesse Eisenberg,
Steve Carell 
and Kristen Stewart
and third, among a rather superficial plot, there are still some smart lines from the master.
It all boils down to relatively little, but the gloss and the comedy are better than many others directing today.
who apart from fighting with his best friend and all and sundry, is looking for his roots in Denmark. In a film reminiscent but far more shallow than Before Sunrise, he meets up with a Danish girl who helps him on his search around the city. 
She later turns out to be 14 after William has decided he wants to shag her and fall in love with her in that order.
Quite nice scenery, a fairly authentic look at some young people’s world today but ultimately the dialogues are pretty trite. Frederikke Dahl Hansen as Effy is the best thing here, she carries off 14 quite well and the role of being a bit of an outsider apart from her maturity.
Anthony acts well enough but his role is one dimensional.
Nothing very profound at all and some plot holes of quite a big size.
All a bit contrived and not especially well acted by Kate Bosworth
, Jamie Blackley and the viola playing bore of a husband Iddo Goldberg.
Kat Coiro tries to give some subtle direction to what ends up taking second place in interest to the scenery of Ischia, which is beautifully filmed in soft Mediterranean lights.
Nothing we haven’t already seen regarding relationships
but at least it has an open ending.
A line up of stars in pretty unrecognizable clothes and hairstyles recreate the 2008 banking crash in the US by trying to explain to us all the subprime mortgage system using cute little cameos like Selena Gomez explaining betting in a casino.
Just when you think you’ve got it, you’re lost again – both moneywise and in terms of understanding what is going on. It’s a sort of zany comedy without much in the way of a laugh. For me, it didn’t make it but to see Steve Carell
, Brad Pitt
, Christian Bale
and Ryan Gosling try to work it saved this from being a complete disaster. Can’t see why some critics raved.
When Eilis (excellent Saoirse Ronan) has to return to Ireland for a family crisis, she gets to compare the two worlds and has to choose whether to stay in her hometown where she is being offered a good future – work and boyfriend – or to return to a different new life in the States with her Italian boyfriend there.
Some nice scripting by Nick Hornby from the Colm Toibin novel, with good supporting turns from Emory Cohen
, Domnhall Gleeson
. Jim Broadbent and Julie Walters,
a good touch of humour and some good scene setting photography, Brooklyn is perhaps not so original or creatively inspired in terms of something new but reinforces a lot of ideas about chasing dreams, about migration and about finding one’s own way in life. 
Very enjoyable for a cold wet afternoon.
and there is the chance to see Dom, Doris and other friends. He also gets a chance to see Kevin, his British ex-boss with whom he had an affair and is still connected via work.
Finally there is Richie (Raul Castillo) who was his real love but who he let go for fear of commitment.
While the acting is good enough, I can’t help feeling that this is not up to the usual standard Haigh gives us. It ties up loose ends and is a human film but that is as far as it goes.
, and Gillian, Alan’s farmer/cashier daughter who will get it wrong, especially with men if she can possibly manage it.
All four leads are excellent. Derek Jacobi anchors as the mild Alan, who does have his issues but always tries to smooth things over with everyone. His new love who dates back to adolescence is Celia, played by one-time Coronation Street star Anne Reid, a wonderful combination of a difficult elderly lady and someone with equal doses of compassion and bitchiness. Sarah Lancashire as Caroline is sublime, a strong appearing woman who has all sorts of fears inside. 
Gillian is played by Nicola Walker, who is amazingly chameleonic and so authentically real with it.
A special mention for Tony Gardner who plays Caroline’s former husband John.
If there is a wet week who can put his foot in it every time it is he. But so carefully crafted and well acted. There is a very able supporting cast, some famous like Rupert Graves
, some not.
the clever scripting is very witty and the humour and unexpected is always close at hand. A superb production for the BBC and one that shows us how life is like today in the North of England.
passionfilm 