The Young Victoria

This film is about the life of Queen Victoria during her youth and her first few years as the monarch of Great Britain.

"The Young Victoria" has amazing production. Every scene is designed and decorated to immaculate detail. The extravagant costumes, lavish locations and beautifully landscaped gardens all make "The Young Victoria" very impressive. I was the most amazed by the thoughtful cinematography. How every person is placed in relation to the background or foreground is well thought out, every scene is well composed. The scene that strikes me the most was when Victoria talks to Melbourne. Melbourne was positioned in the middle of the door frame from Victoria's angle, while from Melbourne's angle Victoria was situated between the space where Melbourne held his arm on his hips.

Story wise, it is far too compressed to be followed and understood by a person without historical knowledge of Queen Victoria. Many events are rushed through or not even explained. I expected a grand scene of the coronation, and disappointingly it only lasted for a few seconds.

Overall, "The Young Victoria" is a good film, and it would have been even better if it was longer, so that events could be properly explained without rush.

The Young Victoria luckily has a story, and even better than that, it has good actors. That's where a film like The Other Boleyn Girl fails. The acting just didn't match the characters. Emily Blunt, who has quickly risen up the ranks into Hollywood A-list status, gives one of her better performances, worthy of her Golden Globe nomination, as the famed English monarch Queen Victoria.

The film follows Victoria in the year leading up to her coronation and into the first few years of her reign, including her relationship of Prince Albert (Rupert Friend). Victoria was a very protected and sheltered princess who was under constant surveillance by her mother and close friend and adviser. Victoria was next in line to take the crown once the King had passed, on so naturally a lot of attention as to when she would ascend to the thrown and how was being discussed. One thing is clear; Victoria does not want to be treated like a child.

Her budding romance with Prince Albert starts before she is made Queen. The Prince is selected to try and win her affection as a political ally, but one thing leads to another and the two become smitten with each other. Albert is aware that the two of them are very young and must look out for one another, especially in the realm of politics. So called "friends" can become powerful influences on the crown, especially in the case of Lord Melbourne (Paul Bettany), who imposes his political party's agenda upon the queen in a back door sort of way, surrounding her with his own people.

Victoria learns quickly, and so do we, that the game of politics is a dicey one. It's hard to see which side people are really on, and by the time you do it might be too late.

I was pleased with the pace and direction of this movie. It could have been too much about the fashion or too much about the politics, but it balanced the two out pretty well. Blunt and Friend are fine opposite each other, playfully going back and forth with their Victorian era flirtations. There is a definite bond their that shows up well on screen.

The rest of the cast does an excellent job. Bettany, Miranda Richardson as Victoria's mother the Duchess of Kent, Mark Strong as Sir John Conroy, the Duchess' adviser, and a nice cameo by Jim Broadbent as an ailing King William. Bettany in particular plays his role quite well, never really telling us whether he is helping the Queen out or trying to do good for himself alone.

The costumes are quite authentic and well made. They don't always distract the viewer's eye but at times they are a bit showy. I guess those were the times. The sets are incredibly detailed. I particularly liked the attention paid to the little knick-knacks and pieces of furniture in the bedrooms and studies. It felt like people were living there.

It wasn't a perfect film and it did have it's dull moments. I thought it ended nicely and didn't wander off to take us places where we didn't need to go.

I went into this expecting not to like it; I figured it would be terribly worthy and earnest, and rather plodding and dull.

It's actually far better than that, and I found myself really enjoying it. I don't know too much about Queen Victoria beyond what most know - married to Albert, who died young, and she mourned him ever after. Seeing the circumstances she grew up under was fascinating; in fact I found myself wishing I'd seen more of the story, and I imagine we may see a sequel at some point.

Visually the film is stunning. The sets and costumes are incredibly lavish without being too gaudy and over the top. The acting is top notch from everybody involved.

In a word, it was great!

Sometimes I'm glad that my grasp of English history is pathetically feeble. It makes movies like "The Young Victoria" much more suspenseful than they might otherwise be. I of course knew that Victoria reigned for a large part of the 19th century and that she died in 1901; I also knew that she was a renowned and powerful monarch. I didn't know much about her love life, and "The Young Victoria" filled that gap in my knowledge nicely.

Emily Blunt plays Victoria with a distinctly modern edge of feminism which may feel a bit anachronistic to picky historian purists but which also works. After all, women like Victoria WERE the feminists of their time, forced into making their mark in what was largely a man's world by a man's terms. I'm convinced that Blunt is one of the most promising of today's young actors. She has tremendous presence on screen; while she's on it, you don't want to look anywhere else. That presence is somewhat wasted in this movie, because her biggest competition comes not from any other actors but from the period sets and costumes. But she gives this rather light and inconsequential film some substance by virtue of simply being in it.

Rupert Friend plays Albert, the man Victoria eventually marries, while Paul Bettany plays her chief adviser and confidant, the man angling to get himself married to her for his own political gain. The cast of British regulars also includes Jim Broadbent, who gets crazier with every role he plays, Miranda Richardson, as Victoria's doormat of a mother, and, notable in a small role, Harriet Walter as Victoria's widowed aunt and the only person other than her eventual husband who gives her any advice that's worth a damn.

Grade: B+

I don't think the film really sets itself apart from other period-bio films from its ilk. It has the usual sort of sentimentality. But, that doesn't mean it's not a good film. Rupert Friend is his usual pretty self, very hot, but he does bring a lot to his role. He can usually be very stoic and emotionless while being just decorated as pretty, but can often not bring much to the table. Here, he absolutely does. He's able to paint the shades of his character well, even if another more talented actor could've brought even more to it. But really, the film belongs to Emily Blunt, a severely underrated actress who brings so much to her roles, and in a leading role, she can knock it out of the park like she does here. She's incredible, definitely snubbed of an Oscar nomination.