[Film Review] The Young Victoria (2009)

THE YOUNG VICTORIA is the late Canadian filmmaker Jean-Marc Vallée’s Hollywood calling card, his 5th feature film and a star vehicle for Emily Blunt. Penned by Julian Fellowes, this cinematic reimagining of the salad says of Queen Victoria (1819-1901) resolves prominently around the affair of the heart between her and her consort, Prince Albert (1819-1861) while the future “grandmother of Europe” makes baby steps to wield her independence among the court intrigues from all parties.

It is, as expected, a respectable encomium of a monarchy’s grandeur and its young monarch’s moxie. With its palatial locations, superfine fineries and sumptuous settings, the film unspools as if on cruise control from one spectacular scene to another, unpretentiousness is its most striking character. Those historically accurate, impeccably selected and manufactured artifacts and costumes are moderately lit (often exquisitely candlelit) with a subdued golden sheen and have a “just there” quality as they are part of the furniture, resisting taking audience’s attention away from the human objects, most of whom are hobbled by formality and good breeding, leaving a lot to be desired. Only Broadbent’s King William IV is able to unleash his hissy fit as he knows his days are numbered, respectability can barely contain his fury over the Duchess of Kent (Richardson, ill cast as an out-of-place puppet at the beck and call of Sir John Conroy), Queen Victoria’s mother. Also, the Regency controversy is quite maladroitly handled, why Sir John Conroy (Strong) act like a maniacal bozo as if he doesn’t know any basic tactics?

Since there are low stakes at hand, even the lover’s spat when Albert (Friend, a passable actor, whose dreadful elocution prevents him from his own ascendancy in the Hollywood) steps on her toes, is easily mollified after a fictitious heroic action, audience can feel safe in the knowledge that the film is incapable of making a great fuss of anything radical apart from Victoria’s ascension into her own personhood, which is really not something particularly film-worthy, after all she is a queen secured and perching on a pedestal, if not for her status and all the royalty trappings.

Vis-à-vis Blunt, who can be put into best use when there are tricksy naughtiness or idiosyncrasies in her character, which cannot be found in this film. She holds her own solidly against the solemn business of men’s statesmanship, but where are Victoria’s own personalities? That is the missing ingredient from the film and Fellowes’ all-too-reverential and glottophobic script (why Prince Albert insists speaking English even with his own brother? Both were born and raised in Saxe-Coburg and Gotha).

As far as a prestige costume drama goes, THE YOUNG VICTORIA is keenly aware of what its audience’s predisposition and shrewd enough to put money into sensible use, but in the dramaturgic aspect, it errors on the side of being in awe of its own lofty subject.

referential entries: Stephen Frears’s VICTORIA & ABDUL (2017, 6.3/10); Vallée’s WILD (2014, 5.8/10), C.R.A.Z.Y. (2005, 8.3/10); Stephen Frears’s CHÉRI (2009, 6.5/10).

Title: The Young Victoria

Year: 2009

Country: UK

Language: English, German

Genre: Biography, Drama, History, Romance

Director: Jean-Marc Vallée

Screenwriter: Julian Fellowes

Music: Ilan Eshkeri

Cinematography: Hagen Bogdanski

Editors: Jill Bilcock, Matt Garner

Cast:

Emily Blunt

Rupert Friend

Paul Bettany

Miranda Richardson

Mark Strong

Jeanette Hain

Thomas Kretschmann

Jesper Christensen

Harriet Walter

Jim Broadbent

Julian Glover

Michael Maloney

Michael Huisman

Genevieve O’Reilly

Rachael Stirling

Josef Altin

Tom Brooke

Rating: 6.6/10