All but the most ardent of anglophiles may feel considerably older after viewing "The Young Victoria." Dramatizing the first years of Britain's longest-reigning monarch, the film is rich in pageantry but poor in plot.
17-year-old Princess Victoria (Emily Blunt) is set to assume the British throne. Victoria's mother, the Duchess of Kent (Miranda Richardson), and mischievous adviser Sir John Conroy (Mark Strong) have other ideas, attempting to usurp Victoria due to her age. Aside from a couple of colorful scenes by a cranky King William IV (Jim Broadbent), this initial conflict is settled fairly painlessly after the king's death when Victoria is a more viable 18.
The film moves from History to Romance, as the young queen gains the attention of Prince Albert (Rupert Friend) and Lord Melbourne (Paul Bettany). This results in the politest of love triangles, in which much of the drama is epistolary. Once Victoria and Albert are wed, even sympathetic temperaments may find "The Young Victoria" all dressed up with nowhere to go.
Emily Blunt's performance, like the film as a whole, is largely an exercise in restraint, though her charisma can't help but come through. Rupert Friend has little to do but play the part of the perfect gentleman. Mark Strong provides much of what little tension there is, at times coming across as almost cartoonishly evil.
Though at times visually impressive, "The Young Victoria" has the feel of a sanitized museum audio guide. And it does seem to have a stamp of approval. Directed by Jean-Marc Vallée, the film was produced by, among others, strange bedfellows Martin Scorsese and Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York. There's a joke in there somewhere. And as the queen said: "We are not amused."
