Fairly accurate costume drama, nicely played throughout.

Rating: 7/10 (12 June 2009)

The Young Victoria is a well-presented costumer about the period leading up to the early years of Queen Victoria's reign. Foremost among the various plot threads is her romance with the dashing Prince Albert but there's more to it than just a lavish historical love story. A reasonable effort has been made to show some of the other events – like relationships, power struggles, political jockeying, and so on – that characterised the era. Certain scenes have been added by writer Julian Fellowes purely for dramatic effect – King William IV's rude rant at the banquet; Prince Albert being injured protecting his bride from an attempted assassination; etc. – but in all fairness, it is the right of any film-maker to embellish bits of their story for the sake of an involving narrative. I don't like it when history is utterly ignored and re-written, but in this case the overall essence of the story remains true to the facts. As historical movies go, this is one of the more reliable and worthwhile examples from recent times.
As a child Victoria (Michaela Brooks) is over-protected in the most preposterous manner; she isn't even allowed to walk down a flight of stairs unsupervised. All this is because she is next in line to the British throne when the current monarch, William IV (Jim Broadbent), passes away. Vultures are already manoeuvring around the grown up Victoria (Emily Blunt), working their way into her trust so that they will benefit from an allegiance with her when her day of reckoning eventually comes. Her mother The Duchess of Kent (Miranda Richardson) and adviser Sir John Conroy (Mark Strong) constantly pressurise her into accepting them as joint-Regents when she assumes the throne. Lord Melbourne (Paul Bettany), a future contender for Prime Minister, works his way into her affections and plants those loyal to his cause in positions of power within the palace. Even her cousin, Albert of Saxe-Coburg (Rupert Friend), is sent to form an alliance with her for political gain. As time goes by, Victoria realises that everyone is jockeying around her for their personal gain, and decides the best approach will be to make decisions of her own. Against the odds, she and Prince Albert find themselves falling in love and together they somehow chart a route through all the intrigue and plotting and avarice around them, emerging a devoted married couple with the best interests of their kingdom at heart.
Blunt initially seems a risky choice as Victoria. She's a new and little known actress, asked to carry the whole film. If she fails, the film fails – she is, after all, prominent in more-or-less every scene. Yet she delivers a warm and convincing portrayal as the young queen. My only real criticism, if it can be called that, is that she is probably too attractive for the role (even in her youth the actual Victoria was not an overly beautiful woman). Rupert Friend also does very nicely as Albert, while the bigger stars are reserved for lively supporting parts or cameo appearances. The film is certainly lavishly shot, with sumptuous sets and costumes. It's "history-lite" in many ways, breaking down the complexities of the events so that they can be understood more easily and presented in a dramatically engaging way. Other viewers have noted that the second half of the film pretty much concentrates on the love elements, dwelling on the romance, and throwing at us those old love story clichés like kissing in the rain. But in spite of its flaws, The Young Victoria is a worthwhile costume drama and a very respectable slice of history on film.