'The Young Victoria'

'The Young Victoria' (PG) ***

Writer: Julian Fellowes
Director: Jean-Marc Vallee
Starring: Emily Blunt, Rupert Friend, Thomas Kretschmann, Mark Strong, Miranda Richardson, Jim Broadbent, Julian Glover

"The Young Victoria" is a very stately, quaint and slow moving movie. That should be the style of this film for it is absolutely lovely to look at with meticulously crafted set design and costumes. It is a very well directed and photographed and I found it's characters very interesting and the story intriguing. This is not full of violent deaths and political back stabbing like the more powerful "Elizabeth". This has political backstabbing but a more courteous and slyer form of it. Emily Blunt gives a very good performance as Queen Victoria who took over the throne at a very young age and was manipulated by her Mother, the Duchess of Kent, and her mother's advisor Sir John Conroy. She breaks out of their grasp when she becomes a little more independent and strikes up a relationship with her German cousin Prince Albert. The movie shows how their friendship grew into a deep love. They each counted on each other for support and closeness during tough political times. Emily Blunt is one of our fine new actresses with her great performances in "The Devil Wears Prada" and "Sunshine Cleaning". She is very good here and gives a mature and compelling performance. The supporting actors are also good especially Mark Strong as Conroy. Queen Victoria had one of the longest reigns which went on for 63 years and there is another good movie depicting the older Queen in "Mrs. Brown". That had an Academy Award winning performance by Judi Dench and "The Young Victoria" would be a tasty appetizer in a double feature with "Mrs. Brown. I usually am bored by historical costume dramas about British royalty except for the powerful "Elizabeth" with Cate Blanchett which is an exception. I found this movie fun actually and intriguing and damn beautiful to look at and take in. So if I like this then someone who digs this sort of movie is guaranteed to really like it.