Phil Mercer

Friday, March 06, 2009

The Young Victoria (Cert PG)

 

Written by Oscar winning Julian Fellows (Gosford Park)
Directed by Canadian Jean-Marc Vallee (C.R.A.Z.Y) and produced by such alumni as Martin Scorsese and Sarah, Duchess of York!

The young Princess Victoria (Emily Blunt) is about to ascend to the throne, but she is under age and under pressure. Her mother, the Duchess of Kent wants her advisor Conroy (Mark Strong) wants to be her Regent. The Prime Ministers and opposition MP's are courting her favour and Her Uncle, King Leopold of Belgian wants closer links with England for security, so wants her to marry his son Prince Albert (Rupert Friend).
We watch as Victoria takes the throne and tries to establish herself as an individual, making mistakes along the way and trying to work who to trust.

Aside from some technical troubles where I watched it (subtitles in the wrong place and dodgy sound) this is an enjoyable story. It just doesn't seem to be up to the big screen standard - probably should have been a telly movie and nothing more.

One of the problems is bad editing with a lot of jumps in the plot line. The film feels unfinished (but how do you fit the life of Victoria in to one film?) with a damp squib of an ending.

It was interesting to learn about some of the troubles that such a young Queen had to deal with. The push and pull of politics and European royal family dealings and is an interesting look at feminism in one way and how Victoria needed a male influence in her life.

Rupert Friend plays Prince Albert (Oxfordshire born actor who is dating Kiera Knightley, he also appeared in The Libertine). Emily Blunt as Victoria, Also stars Miranda Richardson, Paul Bettany and Jim Broadbent.

The acting is all pretty good stuff with a few dodgy accents that you can forgive as it's a good reminder of how international our monarchy has been!

Ultimately I was disappointed really, knowing that Fellows is capable of writing something as good as Gosford Park its a shame he couldn't do it again.

The film was shot on location around the county with Blenheim Palace standing in for a newly finished (without its famous frontage) Buckingham Palace.

Labels: Film Movie

# posted by Phil @ 12:00 am

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