The Reward is the Journey

The trailer promised great things.  Eddie Redmayne for one.  His performance as Lili Elbe (born Einar Wegener) was masterful.  Set in 1920s Copenhagen, I wonder how much things have really changed?  I felt the film portrayed very accurately the awful cost born by so many of the trans* community as they navigate worlds in which they feel bound to conceal their true selves beneath constructed identities.   As a therapist who specialises in working with gender issues I have the privilege of supporting gender variant, queer and querying clients who do not fit neatly into the boxes so many quarters of society still seek to prescribe.   To speak of the challenges this presents hardly does justice to the daily battles being fought that the cisgender majority are unlikely to ever face.  Unless of course, that cis individual is in a relationship with a trans* person...   This was, for me, what the film spoke to most directly observ...

I had wanted to see it since I learnt that Asif Kapadia's documentary was in production.  The sad story of a life cut tragically short and a voice that the world was to be blessed with for only a fraction of the time it could, and possibly should have been. And what a voice it was.  Amy Winehouse's talent was undeniable.   With just two albums to her name, the girl with a petite frame made a huge mark on British music history. Her story was told beautifully.  Silently.  The footage spoke for itself and needed.  She needed no introduction.  And a narrator was not needed for the tragedy that unfolded before our eyes.   The question that loomed for me as I watched as the few chapters into which her life might be divided was, did she ever really stand a chance?  She died of heart failure.  She died, I came to understand, of the broken heart she'd been writing about her whole career. To watch a film such as this, ...

Never before have I pushed the doors to exit the screen with such a sense of deflation.  I was not angry.  I hadn't taken any expectations in with me.  Other than to be entertained. Seems reasonable; given the ticket price.  No one forced me to go.  And fewer still had encouraged me.  But go, I felt I must. So I went.  We couldn't get tickets for the 1:15pm showing at the most local Picturehouse.  So we went a little further afield... ...And took our seats in time for the numerous adverts, and then the trailers for The Duke of Burgundy  (which, now, looks rather interesting), Still Alice (which I've been looking forward to seeing since I first learnt about it) and The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (which will, with that stellar cast, surely be brilliant). Having been reminded that there are membership options more than once, the title and the BBFC's classification finally made an appearance. 'Strong sex and nudity...