A Good Period Piece Depicting Queen Victoria's Early Life

Rating: 7/10 (19 August 2010)

This is first of all a beautiful period piece, with exquisitely designed sets and costumes. Set in the period just before and in the early years of Victoria's reign as Queen of England, there is a definite sense of authenticity that flows throughout this movie.
The story itself revolves essentially around two aspects of Victoria's early life. The first deals with the troubled relationships that existed within the royal family. Victoria's uncle was King William IV - a man who only became King at the age of 64 and had a touch of eccentricity about him. Since William was childless, the heir to the throne was his niece Victoria. Victoria's mother and her partner Sir John Conroy (who many believe was her lover) conspired to take control of England themselves by convincing Victoria to establish a regency. William, however, survived until Victoria's 18th birthday, and Victoria - hostile to Conroy and unsympathetic to her mother - refused to consider a regency, instead reigning in her own right. This was an interesting view of royal life and of some of the intrigues taking place behind the scenes, as well as a somewhat rare depiction of William IV, who's largely forgotten today. The second part of the story dealt with the growing relationship and eventual romance between Victoria and her cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe, Coburg and Gotha. This took up the bulk of the movie, although I would say personally that I found the political machinations within and without the royal family more interesting. It was, however, a good (and corrective) look at a side of Victoria rarely reflected upon. The image we have of her tends to be of her later life - after Albert's death, when she went into extended mourning. Her name sums up an era (the Victorian) widely seen as passionless and, frankly, somewhat dull. Thus, it's refreshing to see Victoria shown as passionately in love with Albert (which she was in truth.)
Emily Blunt's performance as Victoria was top-notch, with Rupert Friend offering a very good performance as Albert. Friend was appropriately in Blunt's shadow for most of the movie, just as Albert would have been in Victoria's. This is an interesting take on Victoria's early life. It's not especially exciting, and adds nothing really that anyone with knowledge of the outline of Victoria's life wouldn't know already (which, of course, also means that it isn't hopelessly romanticized, although the scene in which Albert takes a bullet for Victoria is complete myth, as was the idea that was mentioned that Victoria's marriage made her more popular, when in fact her marriage to Albert was not popular at first with the public) but it's still a good watch.