Emily Blunt shines as 'The Young Victoria'

Rating: 8/10 (1 January 2012)

Before seeing this film, my only experience of Emily Blunt acting in anything, was a horrible performance in 'The Devil Wears Prada', in which she was either miscast, or just didn't have the acting skills to convey. All of a sudden, here she is as 'The Young Victoria' and she's nothing less than sublime. The same can be said of much of the cast, I've never been a huge Paul Bettany fan, but he captured just the right balance of love/hate for his character. Mark Strong also, who seems to always get the baddie role is good. One questionable piece of casting, Miranda Richardson, forever 'Queenie' in 'BlackAdder' is also very good and i didn't find myself thinking of Baldrick or Edmund at all. The film is essentially, at heart, a love story, and a very good one it is. There's some great inventive camera work at times, which is never over indulgent, but actually serves the scenes well when it's sparingly used. The script is very good and the locations are grand and impressive. For anyone that loves this sort of thing, or just wants a brief history lesson, there's lots of offer.