The Young Victoria was directed by Jean-Marc Vallée, written by Julian Fellowes and stars Emily Blunt, Rupert Friend, Paul Bettany, Mark Strong, Jim Broadbent, Miranda Richardson and Thomas Kretschmann.

Plot:
The movie tells the story of how Victoria became Queen Victoria and how she met her husband, Prince Albert.
Victoria (Emily Blunt) is the niece of the current King of England. Since she’s the only child of that generation, she’s going to inherit the throne. Her mother (Miranda Richardson), under the influence of Sir John Conroy (Mark Strong), tries to make her sign over the regency, which Victoria succesfully resists. But her mother is not the only one who wants to influence Victoria: Her uncle, the King of England (Jim Broadbent), sends her Lord Melbourne (Paul Bettany) as a political advisor and her other uncle, the King of Belgium (Thomas Kretschmann), sends her his nephew Albert (Rupert Friend) as a potential husband.

The movie is wonderful. I mean, of course it’s a kitsch-fest, but it’s a beautiful, well-acted kitsch-fest that hits all the right notes and manages to stay mostly historically accurate. What’s not to like?

Emily Blunt does a wonderful job as Victoria, though she is a little overshadowed by Rupert Friend (who, after Chéri and this film, is now definitely on my “to watch out for” list), who gives Albert an amazing emotional depth. Paul Bettany makes even the opportunistic Lord Melbourne kind of great and Jim Broadbent hasn’t been so despotic in quite a while. Only Mark Strong feels out of place. His Conroy would have fit better as a Bond villain than amidst this cast in a subtle drama.

The story itself was tweaked for dramatic effect a little bit. But it feels amazingly true – you can see it happen that way and it feels like it was really well researched. Hats off to Julian Fellowes.

The costumes were absolutely stunning. I can now forgive the Academy for not giving that Oscar to Chéri (though I still don’t forgive them for not even nominating it). Generally speaking, this movie was a feast for the eyes – wonderful set design and cinematography.

Only Jean-Marc Vallée wasn’t that great. He apparently likes to let the camera do all the moving, especially when it got romantic and it got a little too much. But then you always had Ilan Eshkeri‘s wonderful soundtrack to fall back on and save the mood. [Although all his good work was almost destroyed by Sinead O’Connor’s title song, playing over the credits.]

Summarising: If you’re in the mood for romance in the shape of beautiful, rich, royal people, this is the film for you!