Victoria stationary

Rating: 4/10 (19 February 2012)

Yet another historical costume drama this time focusing on the early years of queen-at- eighteen Victoria and in particular her burgeoning relationship to her adored Prince Albert. Cue the soft focus and romantic music as Hollywood trains its trademark feather-light examination on the UK monarchy, having the too pretty and much too old Emily Blunt play the title role and Paul Bettany much too young as the elderly Prime Minister Lord Melbourne as her mentor and escape route out of the clutches of her weak-willed mother and the grasping, ambitious Sir John Conroy as the latter's controller and alleged lover.
Somewhere beneath the well-presented pageantry and pomp, there probably is a good dramatic story trying to emerge but every scene it seems has to contain a resonant phrase or utterance to make you admire the writing, rather than allowing the characters to reveal their true selves with more everyday speech.
I didn't like the shallow, showy acting of Blunt and Rupert Friend could play his part in modern dress, so little does he connect with the time and place of the action. Jim Broadbent gives his typical good turn as the blustering King Willam IV but Miranda Richardson shows that she played costumed nobility much better for laughs (as in "Black Adder") than here when she plays it straight, although that tricky German accent might have thrown her off.
No, for me this too sanitised, too fawning, too calculating production looks all too much as if it was aimed at either the Academy and / or the US box-office, which I'm not unhappy to see it failed in both respects.