The Young Victoria

Plot synopsis:
Princess Victoria of Kent is the heiress presumptive to the throne during the last years of the reign of her uncle King William IV and is subject to a political tug of war for influence over her. On the one side is her mother, the Duchess of Kent, along with the comptroller of the Duchess's household, Sir John Conroy, who tries to force Victoria to sign papers declaring a regency and giving him and her mother power.
On the other side is her uncle, King Leopold I of the Belgians, who wishes to use his influence through family ties to secure an alliance between Britain and his kingdom. He decides to have his nephew Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha seduce Victoria and he is coached in her likes and dislikes. The Duchess invites the Coburg brothers, Albert and Prince Ernest of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, to visit the household. Victoria and Albert develop an early fondness for each other, despite Victoria knowing that Albert was sent by their uncle to win her favours, one mutual interest being Vincenzo Bellini and Franz Schubert. They begin writing to one another after Albert returns home.
At a birthday reception in Windsor Castle, the King states his wish to be closer to Victoria and insults her mother. But when the King increases Victoria's income, this is rejected by Conroy, who physically subdues her in front of her mother, heightening the animosity between them. The King then sends the Prime Minister Lord Melbourne to advise her. Victoria agrees to make him her private secretary, and he appoints ladies-in-waiting for her from political families allied to him.
King William dies after Victoria's 18th birthday, avoiding a regency. After accession, Victoria immediately begins to exert her independence, including moving into her own room and banishing Conroy from her household and coronation. During her first meeting with the Privy Council, she announces that "I mean to devote my life in service of my country and my people". Victoria now moves into the recently completed Buckingham Palace and her aunt, Queen Adelaide, advises her against giving in too much to Lord Melbourne's direction. Albert then comes to England to spend more time with Victoria. They bond more, dancing together during her coronation and later discussing together the condition of the poor. Albert hints at taking their relationship further but the self-sufficient Victoria resists and he leaves.
When Lord Melbourne loses a vote in Parliament, the new Prime Minister designate, Sir Robert Peel, wishes to replace some of her ladies-in-waiting with supporters of his own party and the queen refuses. Peel in turn refuses the queen's invitation to form a new government, allowing Melbourne to continue as Prime Minister. The subsequent crisis damages Victoria's popularity, leading to demonstrations outside the palace and insults hurled at her in public. Her loneliness during the turbulence draws Victoria closer to Albert through their letters and she decides to invite him back to Britain. Since protocol prevents him suggesting marriage, she proposes to him herself.
Their marriage is loving and the birth of their first child helps heal the breach between Victoria and her mother, who had earlier sent a letter of support during the crisis. Nevertheless, Albert is frustrated at his initial powerlessness and Queen Adelaide advises Victoria to allow him to take on more duties. He then reorganises the running of the royal household and dismisses Conroy for mishandling funds. As Victoria's primary adviser, he now blocks the influences of Lord Melbourne and King Leopold. However, Victoria quarrels with him fiercely for going over her head with Peel in the matter of her household.
Soon after, when Victoria is fired upon by a would-be assassin as they are riding in an open carriage, Albert throws himself across her and is wounded. This bravery leads to their reconciliation and Melbourne advises her to share with Albert also her work for the social welfare.
The final title card sketches in their successful future until Albert's death at the age of 42.

Tags: romantic, intrigue, historical, humor, stupid

Review:
The third concerns one of the strangest episodes in British political history, the Bedchamber Crisis of 1839, when supporters of the Tory Party (which had traditionally supported a strong monarchy) rioted because the young Queen was perceived to favour the Whig Party and their leader Lord Melbourne, even though the Whigs had historically supported a quasi-republican system of government, with the monarch reduced to a figurehead.Scriptwriter Julian Fellowes is known for his Conservative views, and at times I wondered if this may have coloured his treatment of political themes, as he seems to lean to the side of the Tories, the predecessors of the modern Conservative party.
(Although not as disastrously over the top as he was in "Moulin Rouge").The main reason for the film's success, however, is the performances of Emily Blunt and Rupert Friend as the two young lovers Victoria and Albert.
Blunt is probably more attractive than Victoria was in real life, but in her delightful portrayal the Queen is no longer the old lady of the popular imagination, the black-clad Widow of Windsor who was perpetually not amused, but a determined, strong-minded and loving young woman.
It's a story that feels extremely humble considering its exuberant background, and yet that's partly what gives it a distinct edge here that separates it from the usual fare.Taking a very direct and focused approach that centres in on a brief five or so year period between her ascension and marriage to Albert, The Young Victoria does what so little period pieces of this nature offer.
Vallée takes this and runs, making sure to fully capitalise on those elements with enough restraint to maintain integrity in regards to both the history involved and the viewer watching.A major part in the joy of watching The Young Victoria play out however simply lies in the production values granted here that bring early 1800's Regal Britain to life with a vigorous realism so rarely achieved quite so strikingly by genre films.
Entwining the works of Schubert and Strauss into Victoria and Albert's story not only works as a point of reference for the characters to play with, but also melds to the work with an elegance and refrain that echoes composer Ilan Eshkeri's original work just as well.Yet for all the poignant compositions, lush backdrops and immaculate costumes that punctuate every scene, the single most important factor here—and indeed to most period dramas—are the performances of the cast and how they help bring the world they exist in to life.
Between the sweet, budding romance of Victoria (Emily Blunt) and Albert (Rupert Friend) and the somewhat antagonistic struggles of her advisors and the like (spearheaded by a terrific Mark Strong and Paul Bettany), the conflicts and warmth so prevalent to Fellowe's screenplay are conveyed perfectly here by all involved which helps keep the movie from being a plastic "nice to look at but dim underneath" affair so common with these outings.In the end, it's hard to fault a work such as The Young Victoria.
Directed by Canadian Jean-Marc Vallee (best known for CRAZY) and written by Julian Fellowes, this film chronicles in very plain terms, ,the life and times of Victoria (Emily Blunt, soon becoming the new It girl) when she was a child, the troubles she faced before Coronation such as the eagerness of her mom The Duchess of Kent (Miranda Richardson) and her adviser Sir John Conroy (Mark Strong) to appoint themselves as joint-Regent to her throne, as already planned for by reigning King William (Jim Broadbent).
On one hand you'd understand the need for a young, and new Queen to have trusted people in key positions, but on the other, are they really acting in her interests, or in the interests of others?Even this angle of intrigue creeps into her romantic story with Prince Albert (Rupert Friend), where their relationship forms the bulk of the second half of the film, and pretty much everything already included in the trailers.
(This scene does go rather over-the-top when Victoria accuses Albert for walking over her simply because she's a woman—a comment that seemed a little too modern in a movie that otherwise sticks close to the values of its period.)Emily Blunt and Rupert Fiend do a beautiful job portraying this fascinating couple.
Prince Albert's contribution to UK and the monarchy warrants a movie on it's own but granted that was apparently not part of the intention here.The costumes and sets are especially good but am I alone in thinking that this production (which judging by the length of titles at the end was certainly not a cheap one) wanted badly for a British Court historical etiquette expert beyond the Duchess of York?
While there are some embellishments made on history with this film, it remains focused on what it sets out to do - which is tell us the story of how the young princess rose to power.The movie looks amazing, the costumes Emily Blunt wears are visually stunning and the music only adds to the film, never detracts from it.
Rigid protocol and generations of power mongering lie behind every royal engagement, including the selection of a suitable king and husband for the future young queen.This film exquisitely portrays this golden era and the complex characters that highlight this period of English history.
THE YOUNG VICTORIA (2009), directed by Jean-Marc Vallée, is a simple love story and performs a great job at romanticizing such by wooing the heart of many a teen and twenty-something girl who still wish they were a princess with a showcase of glamorous balls, elaborate costumes and a good-looking prince with a sharp accent.
For every other demographic watching the film, this reviewer included, the political intrigue of a dying king, an overbearing mother and a manipulative PM, however, isn't quite as rewarding.Emily Blunt, who, as it has been noted, fought for this role, passing on the opportunity to co-star in the comicbook film IRON MAN 2, proved that she had every right to play the monarch and did so with a beautifully royal countenance.
Emily Blunt, who has quickly risen up the ranks into Hollywood A-list status, gives one of her better performances, worthy of her Golden Globe nomination, as the famed English monarch Queen Victoria.The film follows Victoria in the year leading up to her coronation and into the first few years of her reign, including her relationship of Prince Albert (Rupert Friend).
Jean-Marc Vallée's charming "The Young Victoria" skillfully lives up to the aforementioned characteristics, and creates a feel-good movie experience that has your heart guzzling and your mind racing in excitement throughout its entirety.Yes, we love monarchs and their epic, larger-than-life experiences.
But Victoria isn't as silly as everyone thinks, and she has a mind of her own...which is constantly been careened back and forth between diverging influences such as the Duchess of Kent's (Miranda Richardson) trying to make her renounce power to the evil Baron Stockmar, or Lord Melbourne (Paul Bettany) gaining her favour to help establish himself as Prime Minister...or Albert Conroy (Rupert Friend), King Leopold's nephew, who begins to fall in love with her while being part of a plot to earn the queen's protection of the Belgians.Among all these conspiracies and mind-boggling plots is the shy, growing romance between Victoria and Albert.
And Emily Blunt's performance as the young, strong-willed and charming Victoria is excellent and enthralling; she wins you over from the start and opens up Victoria's heart and mind to the audience, making it easy for us to love Victoria the Woman and to relate to her and her life problems, no matter how epically different they are from our own.The screenplay is dazzling, such as we've come to expect from screenwriter Julian Fellowes (Gosford Park), and the film has that sublime, breath-taking, age-old beauty we can expect from lush, sweeping cinematography, mellow and inviting score and top-notch costume design.
By comparison, Rupert Friend comes across a bit too pallid to make any real impression as Albert.Other worthy actors are given too little to do to strike more than single notes in their performances, for example, Miranda Richardson's petulant turn as the duchess, Mark Strong's Conroy trivialized into a stock villain, and Paul Bettany almost too subtly ambiguous as Melbourne.
The 2010 DVD includes 22 minutes of deleted and extended scenes, a standard making-of featurette, a short comparing the movie' title character with the real Queen Victoria, in-depth looks at the film's coronation and wedding scenes, and a final piece that focuses on the costumes and locations.
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.
As are all the leading players are (not diction, or poise!) very good in their roles from our favourite big and small screen stars - Miranda Richardson, Paul Bettany, Mark Strong, Rupert Friend, Jim Broadbent etc.There are lots of reviews up here and so I won't want to repeat too much of they say, but somehow, the very high standards of production, often very glossy (and Oscar winner for Costume Design), plus the lush and swelling stereo (surround) sound, take away the tactility of both the subjects and the film itself.
Yet, the fly-in-the-ointment comes in the form of Lord Melbourne (Paul Bettany), Prime Minister of England and a first-class manipulator, who charms his way into becoming the young queen's personal confidante and helper, largely in control of the people she sees and the decisions she makes - a relationship that ultimately threatens to bring on a constitutional crisis for the nation and that finally comes to a head once the queen has chosen Prince Albert to be her husband.Directed by Jean-Marc Vallee, "The Young Victoria" is a visually opulent costume drama that, nevertheless, manages to keep its characters relatable and life-sized.
I always have a bit of distrust before watching the British period films because I usually find on them insipid and boring screenplays (such as the ones of, for example, Vanity Fair or The Other Boleyn Girl), but a magnificent production design, European landscapes and those thick British accents which make the movies to suggest artistic value which they do not really have.Fortunately, the excellent film The Young Victoria does not fall on that situation, and it deserves an enthusiastic recommendation because of its fascinating story, the excellent performances from Emily Blunt, Paul Bettany and Jim Broadbent, and the costumes and locations which unexpectedly make the movie pretty rich to the view.And I say "unexpectedly" because I usually do not pay too much attention to those details."Victorian era" was (in my humble opinion) one of the key points in contemporary civilization, and not only on the social aspect, but also in the scientific, artistic and cultural ones.But I honestly did not know about the origins from that era very much, and maybe because of that I enjoyed this simplification of the political and economic events which prepared the landing of modern era so much.I also liked the way in which Queen Victoria is portrayed, which is as a young and intelligent monarch whose decisions were not always good, but they were at least inspired by good intentions.I also found the depiction of the romance between Victoria and Prince Albert very interesting because it is equally interested in the combination of intellects as well as in the emotions it evokes.The only fail I found on this movie is that screenwriter Julian Fellowes used some clichés of the romantic cinema on the love story, something which feels a bit out of place on his screenplay.I liked The Young Victoria very much, and I really took a very nice surprise with it.I hope more period films follow the example of this movie: the costumes and the landscapes should work as the support of an interesting story, and not as the replacement of it..
But once Victoria (Emily Blunt) comes of age and is courted by Prince Albert (Rupert Friend) the film blooms.
Because the long established laws of custom, have decreed her passive?" (1799), more than a century after the birth of an English 19th century angel maker named Amelia Dyer (1837-1896), Victoria's accession, English 19th century painters named Susan Isabel Dacre (1844-1933) and Annie Swynnerton (1844-1933) began studying at the Acadèmie Julian (1868) in Paris, France, the publication of "The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon" (1885), the Children's Charter (1889), the Housing of the Working Classes Act 1890, the Whitechapel murders (1888-1891), an Irish author pen named herself Sarah Grand (1854-1943) in accordance with the ideal called New Woman, twenty-four years after an American singer forenamed Suzanne sang: " he said I am not fighting for you anymore he said I've watched your palace up here on the hill and I've wondered whose the woman for whom we all kill the young queen she fixed him with an arrogant eye ..." and nine years after a law to promote equal access for women and men to electoral mandates and elective functions was ratified in France (2000), this regal retrospection contains a great and timely score by composer Ilan Eshken.This abridged and conversational period piece which is set in the early Victorian era (1837-1901) in England in the early 19th century where Jane was wet-nursed which could cause emotional distance, baby-farming was practiced, the world's first underground railway system was opened (1863), an unidentified subject murdered numerous women who were scapegoated as the causers of all STIs, subjected to inspections in locked hospital wards and many thought should be rehabilitated, some kept in institutions were they could do needlework and laundry work and where a mother of nine children, who survived seven assassination attempts is ascribed an hereditary title which she would own forever, is impelled and reinforced by its cogent narrative structure, subtle character development, rhythmic continuity and the mannerly acting performances by English actress Emily Blunt and English actor Rupert Friend.
It was a challenge for Emily Blunt, still only in her mid twenties, to carry a major movie in this way but she gives a fine performance, by turns vulnerable, assertive, impetuous, and amorous.Diana, Princess of Wales, famously asserted that there were always three people in her marriage to Prince Charles and her royal predecessor Victoria - albeit in a different sense - had many people in her courtship with and marriage to her first cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (Rupert Friend), most notably Lord Melbourne (Paul Bettany), and this account makes plain the personal and political manoeuvring around the teenager as she sought her independence.It is a fascinating history tale by French-Canadian director Jean-Marc Vallée but, as a film, fails to excite or engage, since the script by Julian Fellowes does not come up to the standards of his work for "Gosford Park".
Blunt was impressive but the rest of the cast was a bit too robotic for my taste; which included: Rupert Friend as Prince Albert, Miranda Richardson as the Duchess of Kent (Victoria's mommy), and Paul Bettany as Lord Melbourne.
A few years back he wrote the screenplay for GOSFORD PARK,luckily that film movie had Robert Altman to direct,his direction did help the weak screenplay seem better.The director this time is Jean-Marie Vallee, his direction failed to bring these 2 dynamic personalities to life.Emily Blunt is a good actress, she however was not Queen Victoria,besides the fact she was too tall,she was not convincing in many scenes, A better director would have made her more like the Victoria of history.Rupert Friend as Albert, at least tried, he too could have benefited by a better director.Paul Bettany was OK as Melbourne & all the other did give good , if not great performances/As I said the sets & costumes were great,the film itself was not.Ratings: **1/2 (out of 4) 72 points (out of 100) IMDb 6 (out of 100).
Indeed, there is the expected political intrigue involving the power struggle from no less than three factions to control Victoria: Sir John Conroy (Mark Strong) through her mother Duchess of Kent (Miranda Richardson), King Leopold of Belgium (Thomas Kretschmann) through prospective suitor Prince Albert (Rupert Friend) and Lord MelBourne (Paul Bettany) through himself as a father/elder brother figure.
Emily Blunt and Rupert Friend make an engaging Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in this interesting film.
It tells the story of a young Queen Victoria when she first ascends to the thrown and falls in love with Prince Albert.Emily Blunt play the lead and does a fantastic job.
The Young Victoria follows the early years of Britain's longest serving monarch Queen Victoria (Emily Blunt) through to her marriage to Prince Albert (Rupert Friend).All the usual ingredients of a costume drama are present and of course that is a good thing.