Blunt Makes Young Victoria a Royal Success
Victoria (Emily Blunt) is the center of attention. Only 17, her uncle is none other than King William (Jim Broadbent) of England, and as she is the next in line of succession it only makes sense many are doing all they can to get close to the youngster in order to influence her. That is especially true of her mother, the Duchess of Kent (Miranda Richardson), and her ambitious aide Sir John Conroy (Mark Strong), the two of them trying to pressure the lass into signing over her powers as a regency to them.
Rupert Friend and Emily Blunt in Apparition's The Young Victoria
This does not happen, and just after she turns 18 King William sadly succumbs to age and illness while Victoria ascends to the thrown. Quickly making an alliance with Prime Minister Lord Melbourne (Paul Bettany) all appears to be going fine until a flurry of political scandals threaten to bring the new Queen down before she even has the chance to make any sort of difference. Yet her friend and soon to be husband Prince Albert (Rupert Friend) urges her to not give up hope, trusting Victoria will discover the strength within herself to be the type of leader, the type of monarch, the British Empire longs for.
I’m not sure where to begin with The Young Victoria. Writer Julian Fellowes’ (Gosford Park) measured and reserved screenplay shows both passion and depth, while director Jean-Marc Vallée handles things with a classical elegance that fits the subject matter perfectly. The cast is universally excellent, both Blunt and Friend burning with such a fiery passion their romance comes blisteringly close to igniting the screen.
So why does it sound like I have reservations? Because sadly I do, and not because the movie has minor flaws here and there (like the sadly one-dimensional short shrift Fellowes gives to Strong’s bizarrely uninteresting subplot). No, my hesitation to proclaim this a masterwork comes down to a rather frustrating conclusion that doesn’t so much bring things to an end as leave them at an abrupt stop, the film having a cliffhanger of a climax that left me hungering for more.
I’m not sure why this bothers me so much. The picture is triumph on so many levels, Ilan Eshkeri’s (Ninja Assassin) stirring score, Hagen Bogdanski’s (The Lives of Others) sumptuous cinematography, relative newcomer Patrice Vermette’s eye-popping production design and the great Sandy Powell’s (The Departed ) sensational costumes up there with the very best of 2009. This is a film that lives and breathes, one that latches onto the viewer like a soothingly enchanting breeze on a hot summer day. I was captivated from the first frame, my interest in where things were heading only growing as Victoria grew in age, beauty and wisdom.
My guess is that I was so absorbed in the heroine’s travails the fact things end where they do slightly frustrated me beyond all reason. I wanted more, longed to see Victoria and Albert’s romance blossom into legend and see this Queen, the longest to ever sit on the English throne, become the celebrated powerhouse history suggests she was. This movie had me so wrapped around its finger the way it ended caused me all sorts of consternation, the climax coming right at the cusp of the very moments I wanted to see more than all others amplifying this even more.
What’s funny is that for the first time I can remember a film that has made me this amazingly frustrated ends up granting me all the more reason to climb to the highest heights and scream out a euphoric recommendation. The chances the filmmakers could make me so eager for more, more, more was about as unlikely as my eating cheesecake with sardines, yet this is exactly what Fellowes and Vallée accomplished, their enchanting spell so enticing I didn’t want their epic biography to ever conclude.
It is at this point I must say a little bit more about Blunt. I’ve loved this actress since she stole The Devil Wears Prada right out from underneath Anne Hathaway and Meryl Streep, watching her blossom in film after film as great a joy as any I’ve ever had as a professional critic. For my money, after her sensational supporting work in the sadly forgotten Sunshine Cleaning I believe she is deserving of not one but two Oscar nominations this year, her complex, multi-layered and emotionally riveting turn as Victoria maybe the finest work I’ve seen from any actress this year.
Please take my trepidation about the ending with a grain of salt. Overall, this is a movie I can’t help but love, and while my longing for more does keep me frustrated the truth of the matter is I don’t think I’d have things any other way. For my part at least The Young Victoria is a royal achievement worthy of devotion, and if either Fellowes or Vallée ever decided to continue the monarch’s story I guarantee I’d be first in line to purchase a ticket in order to discover where things go from here.
Film Rating: êêê1/2 (out of 4)
