Alicia Vikander: Fame is 'a bit overwhelming'

Take away the gorgeous locations and Danny Cogen's equally gorgeous cinematography, however, and The Danish Girl would feel right at home on the stage.

The Swedish actress has been nominated for the Best Actress (drama) Golden Globe for her role in the movie.

As for the actual film, "The Danish Girl" is far from flawless, but what elegance.

The film works best as a tearjerker rather than a social polemic (although those elements are present), but it's hard to resist Redmayne and Vikander's enormously sympathetic turns.

Earlier this year, she appeared in "The Man From U.N.C.L.E", had a small role in "Burnt" with Bradley Cooper and was on screen as a real-life antiwar activist and author Vera Brittain in "Testament of Youth".

For as much rage as "Stonewall" caused me early in the fall, "The Danish Girl" is already a breath of fresh air when it comes to transgender representation, chronicling the story of Lili Elbe, the first woman ever to undergo sex reassignment surgery in 1920s Europe.

Directed lusciously by Tom Hooper of "The King's Speech" and "Les Misérables" fame, "The Danish Girl" is an aesthetically attractive film, even if it doesn't break out of the typical "British biopic" style of appearance very often.

Lucinda Coxon's screenplay steadfastly avoids sensationalism of any kind. However, I think it's important to remember that the issues Lili encountered 100 years ago are still issues.

I'm doing a film at the moment, J.K. Rowling's Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, which couldn't be more different from playing Lili, but definitely has its own challenges. They looked like women ahead of their time. "Lili doesn't have a choice to but to become who she is and be herself, while Gerda has to make a choice", Vikander said.