A romantic fairy tale, and one almost completely devoid of real villains

Rating: Null/10 (25 March 2010)

Cate Blanchett as young Elizabeth is still unsurpassed but Emily Blunt as young Victoria is coming close. To the global audience (and perhaps even some in the British audience), Queen Victoria is probably no more than a caricature with a balloon caption "We are not amused". A G&S fan, such as myself, may also recall the Penzance Pirates' passionate "with all our faults, we love our Queen". But Emily Blunt, as reported in Time Out, Hong Kong, talks about the Queen at her youth being "sort of the polar opposite" to the persona later in her life. "She was so vivacious and had such a zealous approach to life. She was kind of rebellious", Blunt explains. And she did a marvellous job in projecting that image of the young Queen on screen.
The whole thing is made look like a fairy tale, and I suspect intentionally, by the movie makers who must feel that there has been enough gloom and doom in these palace period pieces all the way back to "Ann of a thousand days". In "Young Victoria", which depicts the short period of a few years from before to after her coronation, there is a surprising lack of tension. Indeed, there is the expected political intrigue involving the power struggle from no less than three factions to control Victoria: Sir John Conroy (Mark Strong) through her mother Duchess of Kent (Miranda Richardson), King Leopold of Belgium (Thomas Kretschmann) through prospective suitor Prince Albert (Rupert Friend) and Lord MelBourne (Paul Bettany) through himself as a father/elder brother figure. But in the way it was presented in the movie, there was never any real threat. Conroy losses steam as soon as Victoria becomes Queen upon the death of King William (Jim Broadbent). Melbourne, portrayed initially with some innuendo as a selfish sly fox, turns out to be impeccably loyal. And things didn't quite work out for Leopold because Albert, upon marrying the Queen, loses no time in making it known in no uncertain terms that he is nobody's pawn.
So we are left with Victoria and Albert rendering the movie into a sweet romance with a fairy tale ending, punctuated by Schubert's popular music. For melodramatic effect, the movie makers inserted one tiny ripple towards the end of the movie with a storm-in-tea-cup quarrel. At one point, it almost seems that The Mikado's (apologies for one more G&S reference) philosophical motto rules: "it's an unjust world, and virtue is triumphant only in theatrical performances". Not so here, in this cinematic performance (and in real history, incidentally). Virtue did triumph and they did live happily ever afterwell, "ever after" with qualification. Victoria and Albert did have twenty years of happy and rewarding life together before his unfortunate death from a fatal disease at 41, followed by her devoted widowhood of 40 year. The early widowhood is indeed tragic. But in the lyrics of "Hello young lovers" (musical "The king and I", sung by widow Anna), "I've had a love of my own", the Queen may find some comfort.
As mentioned, Blunt is good. The regal stance she adopts (still in her nightgown) immediately upon hearing the news of the King' demise is particularly worth watching. The next one to watch is Bettany, versatile character actor who has played just about anything from eccentric Chaucer, to resourceful warship surgeon, to fanatic assassin. Here, he delivers Melbourne expertly with all the subtleties and nuances expected of an actor with his calibre. Friend's performance should be good enough to draw out some sighs of yearning from a certain demographic segment of the audience, thought perhaps not quite making Robert Pattinson nervous yet. Broadbent has his moment has the charismatic (the bellowing variety) King William. The rest of the cast also gives good, solid support.