Cheesy but beautiful

Rating: Null/10 (29 October 2011)

This is a really beautiful, sensitive, and romantic period movie. I like the surprising feistiness of Victoria, and the way the film fights against the subdued role of women in the Victorian age. There are some odd moments-- would Albert and Victoria's first meeting really be so honest, complaining about how they both felt controlled like chess pieces, with so much at stake? _while moving chess pieces_?! It felt cheesy at times then, but it does set up the central conflict of the film.
The period pieces and drama are just really, really beautiful. Art/Costume is A+++, best I've ever seen in a period movie. There are little details like arranging sparkling wineglasses in order and focusing out. I kept trying to remember the color patterns of the gowns; they were so stylish. It's so inspiring. It's surprisingly historically accurate: they have a play on a that famous drawing where Victoria is told that she is queen, while still in her nightgown, with the councillors bowing down before her, which I thought was surprisingly sensitive. One reviewer says, "I doubt if (the king) would have gone so far as to bawl abuse at (his sister in law) during a state banquet". It's funny enough but the true story was that he did publicly yell at Victoria's mother while proclaiming his intention to 'carry on' until his lovely niece turned 18, so I loved to see that scene on film-- it's crazy to believe it actually happened. The music here is very classical and appropriate to the period, but you have to like Liszt and Schubert.
I liked the characters more than I should've; it's romanticizing a harsher time. Albert's tutors upbraid him for not knowing Victoria's tastes, haha. He plays his part with subtlety, expressionless and reserved. Emily Blunt is so good in this role where you can see her frustrations, her anger, her happiness under a reserved demeanor.
An unnecessarily dramatic ending, but I guess there does have to be romance in this movie to carry it along, since not much else is doing so. It's a little predictable and cliché--even as they were getting in the carriage I was thinking (knowing a bit about Victorian history) 'oh, they're probably going to shoot her now to make this a dramatic ending and tie up this movie nicely.' Sigh. There's no real intrigue, and plot points aren't carried out to the end (at one point, protesters storm at the palace gates, and Victoria shuts her eyes and rolls over in bed until the problem goes away.) I wish we were shown the intriguing romance with a story of how Victoria conquered the scheming at court in her first few years as queen; this movie is so mellow that it can only give us the romance.