Beautiful Film, but Could Have Spent More Time to Flesh Out the Characters

Rating: 6/10 (19 October 2009)

As I had always written in previous reviews, I am very fond of watching historical films. When I saw this on the list of Qantas flight home from Sydney yesterday, this was the very first one I watched.
This film tells the story of Victoria from the days prior to and during the early days of her being a queen. Apart from the political intrigues surrounding her ascendancy to the throne, the film also shows us her love story with Prince Albert. As the film covered a lot of time, I felt that the story-telling was rushed through. You just get the main story, but not enough development of characters and exposition of their motivations.
Some characters are clearly villainous like Victoria's mother, the Duchess of Kent (Miranda Richardson), and her nasty adviser Sir John Conroy (Mark Strong). However, the character of Lord Melbourne (Paul Bettany) was of nebulous motivations. The character of King William was very well played by the unrecognizable Jim Broadbent, but I had never actually seen a king address his enemy so scandalously on a banquet table! As expected, there was beautiful cinematography, as well as very colorful period costumes and elaborate set designs. The acting of Emily Blunt (whom I only knew from "The Devil Wears Prada")as the young Victoria and of Rupert Friend (whom I never saw before) as her consort are very lively and strong. Their scenes together were the best parts of the movie. But again, the hastily edited final sequences and the abrupt ending left me unsatisfied. I was expecting more. (However, I did sit through the beautifully haunting song sung over the closing credits.)