BYOYNMS: The Danish Girl
Tuesday, September 1, 2015 at 11:25AM 
That's "Bring Your Own Yes No Maybe So," in case you're wondering. Acronyms for daaaays, henny! I'm seeing The Danish Girl very shortly at TIFF and I don't want to spoil my first experience since I haven't read the book (I know I know) and I'm hearing that this trailer gives away each story beat.
But if you don't care about spoilers, or have read the book, please to watch and let us know where you fall on the Yes No Maybe So divide.
Or, rather, if the trailer moved your needle at all on this latest costume drama from frequent Oscar presence Tom Hooper (The King's Speech, Les Misérables). Gender identity is such a hot topic of late (I Am Cait is basically like having an Intro to Genders Studies course weekly on E! of all places, and Transparent's about to win an Emmy or three, don't you think?) that this film's timing is probably very good. IF, that is, the film lives up to its hype.
The movie will be opening just after Thanksgiving in the US.
Reader Comments (42)
Saw this this moning and thought that Redmayne will be difficult to beat for the Oscar....overall a enthusiastic yes. The film and performances look great and she should get a nomination as well ( supporting or Best depending......)
YESSSSSSSSSS
If it's good, it's gold. I see more potential for Vikander actually than Redmayne. Suffering wife and all.
Whoa! Doesn't look nearly as visually annoying as Hooper's other films. Eddie looks great but Alicia is really holding her own! She's wonderful.
I'm a maybe. This trailer makes it look like a standard dull prestige piece with a trans gloss, so it'd need ECSTATIC notices to convince me beyond an Oscar completist viewpoint.
Love. YES.
I'm going to co-sign every single word Volvagia said. It looks glassy and dead, with strangled, whispery line deliveries every which way.
I was maybe 10% interested in this film before this trailer. Now, I'm at 90% (that is, just slightly skeptical of Hooper). It looks visually scrumptious and the chemistry between Redmayne and Vikander seems legit. Bring it on!
Also, can we please get a video now with Eddie Redmayne singing "I am NOT Jessica Chastain"? Kthxbye.
YES. I teared up watching the trailer, Eddie looks incredible, and so does Alicia. Plus Ben Whishaw and Matthias Schoenaerts! My only issue is with Tom Hooper's obsession with close-ups, but that didn't stop me from loving Les Mis, so.
I want to like Eddie Redmayne so badly. But I just can't. Each time I see a film of his I hear the Hepburn-coined "click click click" in his performance: his blinks, finger movements, lip quivers all seem calculated and mapped. It's Acting with a capital A and while it works for some I can't seem to ever get behind it. I'm always watching the dancer and never the dance.
However, I'll reserve judgement on this film until I see it, great source material, oy Tom Hooper, etc.; I side with Volvagia and Tim here...
So. Many. Tears.
Possibly dreading this even more. It's as if Hooper replaced all his paint-by-numbers close ups with medium shots. Glossy and boring looking. Hopefully it's just the cut of the trailer.
Though the subject matter and the actors are very enticing, the trailer is a necessary reminder that this is, above all over things, a Very Important Tom Hooper Movie. That is not in necessarily a bad thing, but it, you know, might be a bad thing. We'll see. I guess that makes me a maybe so.
Looks way better than I anticipated and Vikander looks like she has a plum role as the audience surrogate. Time will tell if it's a lead or supporting role, though. Kinda jarring to see Amber Heard pop up in there but even she seems to be doing more interesting work than what she's usually given.
Charles O finally someone sees what I see,cannot abide him or his insincerity.
Maybe. The trailer is better than I thought it would be.
Something about Redmayne's performance just feels like a caricature from the consistent hands touching face which feels like him thinking that is how you properly portray a trans person. My biggest problem and worry for this film is direction as I feel Hooper just let Redmayne do what he want and instead of pulling him back he seems to have built him up as this beacon of light. Also his choices of framing scenes have always been a problem where he loves to leave lots of space without action and that just looks ugly to be. The only thing I really liked was Vikander who works best when she does less (e.g. Ex Machina) and to me she looks much stronger then Redmayne but will get overshowed because her role is less baity in terms of going through only an emotional journey instead of a physical one that Redmayne is going through plus the emotional.
P.S. Ben Whishaw already impressed in his voiceover work for Paddington this past January and this final quarter of the year should be a massive breakout for him with roles in Oscar bait films like Danish Girl and Suffragette. Also he returns as Q in Spectre, has a role in The Lobster and is also in the cast of the Ron Howard In the Heart of the Sea which got pushed back for some reason. I hope he gets some notices by something because he was so good on The Hour and The Hollow Crown and when compared to british actors of his generation (Cumberbatch, Hiddleston & Redmayne) he's the most talented but just hasn't been given the same opportunities in film (must have something to do with him being gay and Hollywood seemingly not willing to cast him as a romantic lead because of that?).
It doesn't look quite as stupid as The Theory of Everything or The Imitation Game, but the trailer does give a similar impression of a stately, "sensitive" approach to the topic that doesn't really plumb any intellectual or emotional depths (despite the copious tears). "Glossy", as stated above, is a good descriptor.
Eoin-
Whishaw will also be headling a revival of The Crucible this season on Broadway with Sophie Okonedo and Saoirse Ronan on Broadway. He will undoubtedly receive a lot of attention for that and could emerge a strong Tony contender.
No.
Looks amazing. I'm so not here for RedCarpet's second Oscar, but that might be inevitable at this point. Slayed, mama!
Vikander's role is as baity as it gets.
Oh fuck off!!!! This is fucking Oscar-bait. I ain't watching that shit.
It looks just as I expected. Redmayne looks okay, though his posturing could be problematic. Vikander looks amazing, however.
I'm not a Tom Hooper fan at all (I thought The King's Speech was, at best, pleasant, while Les Mis was one of the worst movies I have ever seen), so I'm going in with low expectations, though his use of bizarre angles seems somewhat minimized here. So I'm a maybe so.
It looks incredibly moving. Random aside, but the production design looks top notch. I was lukewarm about The King's Speech but the production design of that film was definitely my favorite aspect of it.
I'm more curious about Vikander than I am about Redmayne at this point because she's newer and Ex Machina is still burning bright in my mind. Not sure about the forcefulness of her confrontation in little snippet...would that character in that time even have any context to confront what it is she witnessed? But, I'm willing to reserve judgment. I'm a yes.
Big YES from me! Trailer looks wonderful. That might be the best cut trailer I've seen so far this year. That last walk . . . my God. Absolutely stunning! I also don't see how Alicia Vikander misses out on a nod with the year she's had and playing such a classic bait role. Hope category confusion doesn't trip her up.
If the film spends time situating this story within the amazing and fluid sexual and intellectual climate of the 1920s (which would make sense with them being artists) then this could be fantastic. If it devolves into "ahead of their time"/"against the world" pat narratives (like Imitation Game or King's Speech) this would be an incredibly disappointing missed opportunity. Europe has just been at war so boys were enthusiastically kissing boys! Girls were slimming down to look like boys! Jubilant youth were taking to the streets to have sex! "Fairy boys" and clubs were elite obsessions. Locate the story there, please!
...but the "you're the only person who understood me" does NOT bode well.
Yes: This looks to be Eddie Redmayne's best performance yet.
No: The story looks to cliche.
Maybe So: It seems like an insult for Alicia Vikander to be playing such a stock character after getting such a meaty role in Ex Machina, but we'll see how she does.
I am willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, but this looks twee to me. And Hepburn was hardly a natural actress, so the less said about her petty jealousy and late in life insults all the better.
Nomination - Yes Win - NO
So zeitgeisty... So mainstream... So glossy...
It's not even a matter of what my mind thinks of this trailer. My body rejects it...
I think it looks good. Hopefully Hooper has reined in the fish eye lens and the stark focus/out-of-focus trickery he loves (I see some of it, but not as much) then It should look gorgeous too. I struggle with people complaining about movies being "Oscar bait" since usually it just means they look classical and not every movie can be Mad Max.
Best Actress 2015...Alicia Vikander or Carey Mulligan.
I know it's becoming a popular thing to hate on Redmayne, but I love his weird little acting tics. And I love how all the characters he's played seem like variations of himself (but in a less annoying/pompous way than someone like George Clooney).
tbh not interested in watching an oscar bait gender identity drama
No no NO to a 2nd Oscar for RedCarpet.
YES:
- Those sets and costumes. Such a pleasure to watch!
- 'DIRECTED BY TOM HOOPER' Many dislike him, but his style fits me. Though the close-ups are a bit too often, his films as a whole were always in the top 3 of the respective years.
- Alicia Vikander. She was so great in Ex Machina and was the only good thing about Testament of Youth and this looks to be a juicy part. Definitely more juicy, than Jones has in The Theory of Everything.
- Eddie Redmayne. He is growing to be a respected actor. His recent win was one of the most deserving (in my opinion) and I find his style very likable.
- The shot of Vikander against the light (2:25). Oh, that's beautiful.
- 'You are the only person, who made ME possible.'
NO:
-More than the close-ups, I am annoyed by the shots, where the centre of out attention is pushed aside and the most we get to see is a wall, or another uninteresting piece of set. I know the production design in your films is good, you don't have to 'masturbate' about it.
MAYBE SO:
- 'He was so charming.' Though I really like Redmayne's acting (I find his style to be very honest and true), he isn't the most charming actor out there. And he doesn't seem to make difference with this film.
- Tom Hiddlestone. He was way too over-the-top in The Avengers and everything I have seen him in. I'm not sure, if this film is going to make any difference.
- "Albert Nobbs syndrome" Though the makeup is really nice, if I were Whishaw's character, I would have never believed Redmayne is a woman. I don't know if it's just me, but the makeup looks very ambiguous. Will Redmayne pull off a makeup nomination for this, when he wasn't able to do it with (not less ambiguous) The Theory of Everything?
I am a yes. Expect this to be (just as all of Hooper's previous films) love it or hate it. Hope to love it! The potential is there.
I will be so entertained by the Internet outrage if Redmayne manages to pull off Oscar No. 2!
Since I am an Oscar completist, "yes, no, maybe so" is a moot question for me. There's no way this doesn't get many nominations. I would never see it otherwise, though. It's bait.
@moviefilm
That's not Tom Hiddleston, that is Matthias Schoenarts.
Alicia Vikander > Felicity Jones, that's for damn sure.
It's bad enough that Eddie Redmayne is already an Oscar winner. No need for history to repeat itself with bullshit.
Evan--That is hilarious! My thoughts exactly.
Maybe--but not in theater. I liked the old Eddie from Pillars of the Earth days...