2015 has undoubtedly been Alicia Vikander’s breakthrough year with fantastic lead parts in the thought provoking sci-fi thriller Ex Machina and the harrowing World War I drama Testament Of Youth, which is now available digitally and will arrive on Blu-ray and DVD from 25th May. However, this rise to the fore is by no means out of the blue for Vikander, who showed promise as a leading actress in A Royal Affair in 2012 and then went on to hold her own opposite the likes of Keira Knightley in Anna Karenina and Benedict Cumberbatch in The Fifth Estate. In this feature we take a look at the very best of Alicia Vikander.
Anna Karenina (2012)
Anna Karenina is a bold, theatrical adaptation of Leo Tolstoy’s timeless novel by Academy Award winner Tom Stoppard. The film was the third collaboration of Academy Award nominee Keira Knightley with acclaimed director Joe Wright, but whilst Knightley was brilliant in the title role, Alicia gave a fantastic performance in the key supporting role of Kitty. In late 19th century Russian high society, St. Petersburg aristocrat and wife of senior statesman Alexei Karenin (Jude Law), Anna Karenina enters into a life-changing affair with the dashing Count Alexei Vronsky (Aaron Taylor-Johnson); an affair which attracts national attention, outrage and Anna’s ultimate demise. Vikander’s Kitty is the beautiful young woman who is courted by both Levin (Domhnall Gleeson) and Vronsky, and who ultimately marries Levin. Modelled on Tolstoy’s real-life wife, Kitty displays great courage and compassion in the face of death when caring for Levin’s dying brother Nikolai.
A Royal Affair (2012)
Anna Karenina was not Alicia’s first performance in a film based on a real life controversial affair in a European court. 2012’s A Royal Affair was an historical drama film directed by Nikolaj Arcel, set in the 18th century court of the mentally ill King Christian VII of Denmark (Mikkel Boe Folsgaard), focusing on the romance between his wife, Caroline Matilda of Great Britain (Vikander), and the royal physician Johann Friedrich Struensee (Mads Mikkelsen). This true story of the royal physician who won the queen’s heart and started a revolution with his enlightenment idealism was a surprise success on film, receiving two Silver Bears at the Berlin International Film Festival and nominations for Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards and Golden Globe Awards. The intriguing love triangle is played out brilliantly as a gripping tale of brave idealists who risk everything in their pursuit of freedom for their people.
The Fifth Estate (2013)
The Fifth Estate is a 2013 thriller film directed by Bill Condon, about the news-leaking whistleblower website WikiLeaks. The film stars Benedict Cumberbatch as its editor-in-chief and found Julian Assange, and Daniel Bruhl as its former spokesperson Daniel Domscheit-Berg. The film’s screenplay was written by Josh Singer, based in-part on Domscheit-Berg’s book Inside WikiLeaks: My Time with Julian Assange and the World’s Most Dangerous Website (2011). In The Fifth Estate, Vikander plays Anke Domscheit-Berg, the wife of the journalist whose interest in online activism led him to Assange.
Son Of A Gun (2014)
Alicia Vikander impressed once again in a key supporting role playing Tasha in 2014’s Australian crime thriller Son Of A Gun. When JR (Brenton Thwaites) is sent to prison for a minor crime, he becomes the apprentice to Brendan Lynch (Ewan McGregor), Australia’s public enemy number one. When JR helps Brendan break out, they go on the run and form a complex co-dependent relationship. Frictions grow between JR and Lynch when Tasha comes onto the scene and distracts JR from his criminal activities. Things come to a head when JR joins Lynch’s gang for a gold heist that pits the two men against one another.
Ex Machina (2015)
In Ex Machina, the cleverest sci-fi thriller of this year, Vikander plays her most intriguing role yet – that of Ava, the artificial intelligence robot designed by Nathan (Oscar Isaac). A young programmer of an internet search-giant, Caleb Smith (Domhnall Gleeson), is selected by the CEO of his company to participate in a breakthrough experiment in artificial intelligence by evaluating the human qualities of a breathtaking female A.I. Caleb soon becomes attracted to Ava as her emotional intelligence proves far more sophisticated – and more deceptive – than the two men could have imagined. Oscar Isaac, Domhnall Gleeson and Alicia Vikander all shine in Alex Garland’s directorial debut.
Testament Of Youth (2015)
The indomitable Vera Brittain became the first person to document war from a woman’s point of view and, in doing so, changed the way a generation regarded itself and its actions. This year her defining testimony was adapted into a searing story of love, war and remembrance, with Vikander starring as Brittain and Kit Harington as her fiance Roland Leighton. As Vera and Roland go to Oxford University to pursue their literary dreams, the First World War looms. As the boys leave for the front, Vera realises she cannot sit idly by as her peers fight for their country, so she volunteers as a nurse. She works tirelessly, experiencing all the griefs of war, as one by one her fiance, her brother and their closest friends are all killed and the pillars of her world are shattered. However, an indefatigable spirit, Vera endures and returns to Oxford, irrevocably changed, yet determined to find a new purpose which spurs her towards a redemptive act of remembrance. A sweeping, epic and yet inherently personal account of the true cost of war, Testament Of Youth features towering performances from Vikander and Harington as well as a peerless support from a veritable who’s who of British acting talent, including BAFTA winners Dominic West, Emily Watson and Miranda Richardson alongside Taron Egerton, Colin Morgan, Hayley Atwell, Joanna Scanlan and Anna Chancellor.
Testament Of Youth is out now digitally and will arrive on Blu-ray and DVD from 25th May, courtesy of Lionsgate Home Entertainment.
