"The Young Victoria" Movie Review

I admit, The Young Victoria is not my usual fare, as far as movies go.  On the rare occasions I do watch period movies, they're usually more along the lines of Elizabeth: The Golden Age, with enough war and court intrigue to keep me occupied for the two hour long movie.  The Young Victoria, on the other hand, seems more like a movie my unimaginative history teacher from last year would show.

Regardless, I found it an okay movie.  It wasn't great, it wasn't awful.  It didn't bore me to death, but I'd never watch it again.  It earns points for historical accuracy, the beautiful settings, and the performance of the ever-awesome Miranda Richardson, who I have mildly idolized ever since I saw her in The Phantom of the Opera and The Hours.  What it loses points for: its utter forgettability.

The sets/locations are absolutely fabulous.  They really capture the the grandeur of British royal palaces. The wide expanses, especially in the outdoor and coronation scenes, are used to great effect in wide angle shots to capture the all-encompassing nature of the monarchy, and how lost Victoria is in it.  Or maybe I'm just reading too much into it :P

The directing is, I'm sad to say, unimaginative for nearly the whole movie.  It feels almost like a documentary, which is not helped by the fact that it breaks two of my golden rules for movies, namely, no text on screen, and no narration.  There's the rare movie where narration works, but I have not yet found the movie where you can throw text up on screen and have it not look preachy or immature.  The one element of the presentation that I really enjoyed was how so many of the important events (King William's death, Victoria's pregnancy) are shown, without words.  So many directors fail at "show, don't tell", Jean-Marc Vallee doesn't.

The acting is solid but not amazing.  Miranda Richardson and Mark Strong, as the Duchess of Kent and Sir James Conroy, respectively, steal much of the show.  Emily Blunt is a passionate, intelligent young queen, but her performance just . . . it didn't have any real "spark" for me.  And the guy who played Albert was just plain boring.  Maybe it's the writing that bugged me -- the film focused a lot on Victoria's personal life, and less than I would have liked on her actual reign.

Overall, The Young Victoria is a good movie for someone who just wants to see a nice, pretty accurate historical romance/drama (the love story is a bit sweet at times . . . but way overly sweet at others).  But for me, it was just a bit bland.