The Young Victoria (2009)
With beautiful costumes and exquisite set and art design, The Young Victoria is visually wonderful to watch. There was so much hype about Emily Blunt getting an Oscar nomination for it, but she wasn’t given very much to do. What she was asked to do, she did well, but the movie itself felt a little thin. It felt like a watered-down television script, or a highly fictionalized biopic from the early 1990s. Although I am aware screenwriter Julian Fellowes took great care to make sure it was historically accurate, somehow the finished product seems sensationalized for Hollywood audiences. In fact, if I hadn’t seen his name in the credits, I wouldn’t have known The Young Victoria was a Fellowes work.
This sounds highly critical, but with all the detailed, epic historical dramas about royalty, there’s room for audiences to pick and choose which are more enjoyable. Since many movies about the same subject were made in quick succession, it promotes nit-picky criticism. “She looked more like her,” or “That scene was more romantic,” can shift loyalties in the blink of an eye. Between 1997 and 2017, there were five biopics of Queen Victoria: Mrs. Brown, Victoria & Albert, The Young Victoria, Victoria, Victoria & Abdul. With all that competition, Emily Blunt only stands a 20% chance of standing out. She might not have made the Academy’s cut, but this movie opened tons of doors for her and she rocketed to stardom – so hopefully, she’s grateful for the attention she did get.
In the supporting cast, you’ll see Rupert Friend as Prince Albert, Jim Broadbent as King William, Miranda Richardson, Paul Bettany, Mark Strong, Julian Glover, and others. Once again, it’s very pretty to watch, but director Jean-Marc Vallée seemed more interested in capturing young people’s attention than creating a historical epic to stand the test of time.
More Emily Blunt movies here!
This sounds highly critical, but with all the detailed, epic historical dramas about royalty, there’s room for audiences to pick and choose which are more enjoyable. Since many movies about the same subject were made in quick succession, it promotes nit-picky criticism. “She looked more like her,” or “That scene was more romantic,” can shift loyalties in the blink of an eye. Between 1997 and 2017, there were five biopics of Queen Victoria: Mrs. Brown, Victoria & Albert, The Young Victoria, Victoria, Victoria & Abdul. With all that competition, Emily Blunt only stands a 20% chance of standing out. She might not have made the Academy’s cut, but this movie opened tons of doors for her and she rocketed to stardom – so hopefully, she’s grateful for the attention she did get.
In the supporting cast, you’ll see Rupert Friend as Prince Albert, Jim Broadbent as King William, Miranda Richardson, Paul Bettany, Mark Strong, Julian Glover, and others. Once again, it’s very pretty to watch, but director Jean-Marc Vallée seemed more interested in capturing young people’s attention than creating a historical epic to stand the test of time.
More Emily Blunt movies here!