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Building on the huge success of romantic costume dramas over the last few years, director Jean-Marc Vallée turns to Queen Victoria, one of Britain’s most iconic figures, for yet another historic love story. The Young Victoria, however, fails to live up to expectations.
The life of a princess is not easy, especially if you are about to become the most powerful individual on the planet. This strong image forms the background against which the romance between the young Victoria and Albert has to unfold. In the first hour or so, Vallée presents to the viewer a unique insight behind palace walls. The inexperienced but strong-minded Victoria, trapped by her own power, constantly feels like ‘a chess piece in a game played against her will’.
This is strikingly illustrated by two completely different characters. The first of them is the bad-tempered Sir John Conroy, played by Mark Strong. This over-ambitious nobleman makes no secret of his plan to control the young queen through her mother. However, his attempts end in a lot of shouting, broken furniture and, more importantly, a broken mother-daughter relationship. More successful is the charming and charismatic Lord Melbourne, brilliantly played by Paul Bettany. By creating a genuine bond of friendship with the lonely queen he manages to get an incredible hold over her, resulting in parliamentary crisis and attempted murder.
The saving angel arrives in the form of Prince Albert, convincingly played by Rupert Friend. In the beginning their fragile romance is predictable but touching. However, from the moment they marry, the film loses all its credibility. The complicated and sophisticated drama is replaced by endless scenes of cheap fairytale romance, and the witty conversations by clichéd one-liners.
It is a shame that a film with so much potential is given a commercially attractive fairytale ending. Besides this, flaws are hard to find. The acting is, for the best part, strong. Emily Blunt especially displays a powerful performance in playing Victoria herself. Furthermore, as was to be expected, the film is visually stunning.
After a very strong start, The Young Victoria ends up in a clichéd love story in which Queen Victoria never manages to achieve the romantic sophistication of her successful predecessors.
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