My rating on a 1-10
scale: 9
Genre: Life, biography (rather a biographical film,
obviously), some romance, period drama
Primary actors: Rupert Friend, Emily Blunt
Length: A little under two hours
Based on: Queen Victoria’s early life -- some
childhood, but mostly her early life as queen
Time period: 1800’s
Quote(s): "Master the rules of the game until you play it better than they can."
Year it came out: 2009
My overall opinion: I’ve been really wanting to watch this period
drama for a while. I thought it looked super fun, very interesting, and
altogether great! And now, finally, I got to see The Young Victoria. Overall?
I liked it a lot. It was very interesting, the costumes were awesome, and it
was good! A few more particulars...
I spotted two people
I recognized from earlier movies. One was Rupert Friend himself, who played Mr.
Wickham in Pride and Prejudice 2005. He was better here.
Another
was Harriet Walter, Mrs. John Dashwood from the 1995 Sense and Sensibility. I
knew Wickham was in here, but hadn’t expected Mrs. John Dashwood! I preferred
her here...but then, she’s a detestable character in S&S, so.
Finally, I
also noticed Mark Strong – he was Mr. Knightley in the 1996 version of Emma -- that's the brown haired Kate Beckinsale one. He played a fairly main character in Young Victoria,
but I didn’t recognize him until I watched some of the special features and
noticed his name at the same time as his face!
One thing that
bugged me...was it just me or did Albert have just a bit of an Inigo Montoya
accent? Several of the accents sounded similar to his. Just something I noted.
:)
The costumes and
jewelry were stunning. I had a few favorite outfits on Victoria, including: the
gold dress with roses that she wears to the coronation ball...
...the mauve (?)
dress with lace that she wears when she officially announces her pregnancy to
friends and family...and the emerald dress with some blue -- she wore it twice. I love the dark green that's so shimmery!
I
was also surprised to discover that the blue dress that is seen often in
association with this movie didn’t come into evidence until the very last
scene!
I liked the way Victoria did her jewelry. Fairly simple, often gold.
I
though the effect of the single gold necklace in several scenes was amazing. If
you have no other reason you want to watch this movie, the costumes may make it
worth-while. :)
I noticed a couple
photography things too. One that I really liked was their interesting focus on
two particular scenes. The very first opening shot, where the focus “runs” down
a line of guards, and also in a scene of wine glasses in the first half of the
movie. Again, the focus “ran” down the line -- super cool. :) I also found it
interesting how much they used mirrors for seeing people. There were quite a few
shots that had a person in a mirror!
As you’ve probably
heard if you’ve heard much about this movie, there are a few scenes to skip. As
soon as Victoria and Albert’s wedding is done, you’ll want to fast forward (or
entirely skip) several short scenes -- probably a little over five minutes
worth. One thing that makes this more difficult is that it cuts between and
A&V scene and a different unrelated scene...and then back. Just skip the
middle scenes too, they aren’t too important. Other than that, the movie was
mostly clear -- a few insinuations etc, but not bad at all.
The most exciting
scene (I refuse to ruin it if you don’t already know what it is) was well done,
and I was impressed! Very well filmed. And I LOVED what Albert told Victoria at
the end of the scene... *happy sigh*. Super sweet. :)
So, there you go!
Good movie and I enjoyed it. Skip a few scenes, and you’ll be good to go! I
think it was pretty accurate historically, but I need to go get a Victoria
biography to read now. It deserves a 9!
My overall opinion: I didn’t love it as much as I’d hoped to, but it was still a very moving movie. Wilberforce did an unbelievable amount of work against slavery! I had no idea that he’d spent as many years as he did working on that. It was very eye-opening. 
