Venice Review: Tom Hooper's 'The Danish Girl' With Eddie Redmayne & Alicia Vikander

Is it permissible to be glad that a film exists, admiring of some of its elements, delighted that it will get a massive release, even OK with it probably winning a million bajillion awards, and to not like it? Tom Hooper's "The Danish Girl" is so inarguably Oscar-ready that already in the frenzied minutes after its Venice premiere the debate has whipped past the seemingly obvious nominations, like Eddie Redmayne for Best Actor, and currently hovers somewhere around whether Alicia Vikander should be campaigned as Supporting, where she'll have a better chance, or Lead, where she belongs. Mind you, we'll probably be beyond that again in a few paragraph's time.

But while it's easy to be sniffy in an "obvious awards bait is obvious" kind of way, the fact is that both actors are very good, even if trapped in the amber of Hooper's overweeningly tasteful direction. And if the affectations of his style, especially reteamed with "The King's Speech" and "Les...