Worth watching just for Emily Blunt's performance

Rating: 5/10 (24 November 2011)

An interesting life story of Queen Victoria is presented in a rather dull way in this film. It feels as if the director did not know what he wanted to tell us. We see numerous times long and often boring shots of things that are best said once and quickly (queen's dog, stairs, or just nothing in particular), all at the expense of character introduction and development, and story.
Most "beats" in the film have been flattened by heavy weight of dullness, important moments are downplayed, some less important ones are overdramatized for no reason, and the biggest satisfaction of watching this film comes from performances of the two young actors - Emily Blunt and Rupert Friend.
While all actors did a great job, which is one redeeming quality of "Young Victoria", Emily Blunt steals the show yet again. To see her go through full transformation of her posture, walk, accent, facial expressions, even the way she cries, laughs and yells for every role, is enlightening. As much as I chose to watch this film because of her, I was immediately absorbed in her character and forgot that it was Ms. Blunt I was watching, rather than her young majesty.
Fortunately, Emily Blunt's performance makes up for most of what is lacking in this film, so it is definitely worth watching (those five stars I gave to this film were mostly earned by Ms. Blunt). Otherwise the film itself is a good study of how a good story can be ruined by poor script and direction.