We know the Queen Victoria with the jowls, the Prince Albert in a can.
But when they were young, she was quite the Hanover Rose, and he the dashing continental, smitten enough to want to become her consort for what would be the Victorian Era.
The Young Victoria boasts a first-rate cast, glossy production values and a thrilling score, all serving a story with intrigue, pageantry, violence and romance.
And if it's not historically accurate with a capital "A," well it's close enough for the Colonies.
"What little girl doesn't dream of being a princess?" asks Victoria (Emily Blunt, doing well by a big-break role). But "even a palace can be a prison."
We meet Victoria as an unhappy teen, stubbornly resisting the manipulations of her scheming mother (Miranda Richardson, subtle) and her mother's comptroller, the power-mad Sir John Conroy (Mark Strong, terrific). The girl has grown up in cruel isolation. Her mother is unpopular with her uncle, King William (Jim Broadbent, in fine lather), who rants and lives just long enough for Victoria to be old enough to assume the throne.
But even that isn't a relief. Victoria must learn whom to trust — the dashing prime minister, Lord Melbourne (Paul Bettany); her Teutonic relatives; or the handsome cousin, Albert, hand-picked as her suitor by their cunning and ill-tempered uncle, King Leopold of Belgium (a ranting Thomas Kretschmann) He might come with strings attached, but Albert (Rupert Friend) is easy on the eyes, sweet and willing to ignore coaching and speak his mind. She is quite taken with him.
Screenwriter Julian Fellowes (Gosford Park) settles on only the earliest years of Victoria's reign. But this lush bio-pic still shoves much into its 100 minutes — Victoria dabbling in politics (a blunder), her concern to do more for the poorest among her people, the love affair and the many assassination attempts (one fairly serious historical exaggeration pops up here). It's a lot to put across and a lot to absorb.
You don't have to be a royalist to be moved by beautifully staged coronation and wedding moments, and composer Ilan Eshkeri scores such scenes with music so thrilling you'll feel as if you have a front-row seat to the real thing.
The Young Victoria lacks the fury and love-and-death stakes of the Elizabeth movies and the humor of the later-Victoria romance Mrs. Brown. But this first-rate period piece does an admirable job of capturing the rise of the woman whose reign was marked by the phrase, "The sun never sets on the British Empire."
