I SUPPOSE we were bound to encounter a film with this title sooner or later. The only serious quandary facing any screenwriter setting out to dramatise the early life of Queen Victoria is where to direct his or her focus.
One could, of course, deal with the relationship between the Queen and Prince Albert, her husband and lifelong inspiration. That’s in here. Then there’s there the matter of tension between sinister Sir John Conroy, sometime comptroller of the royal household, and a young monarch who wanted to firmly assert her authority. That’s in here too. What about her dangerous closeness to Lord Melbourne, her first Prime Minister? It’s here.
It looks as if screenwriter Julian Fellowes, who should know better, couldn’t decide which story to tell and, in a fatal compromise, has elected to pack them all into a busy – though paradoxically sluggish — 104 minutes. For the opening half-hour, Conroy (played with oily relish by Mark Strong) shapes up as the piece’s main villain. Then, following the coronation, he is bundled into a cupboard and not allowed out until a further half-dozen subplots have worked their way to completion.
Rupert Friend is charming as Albert, but, given that he spends half the film pacing the corridors of his German castle, it’s hardly surprising that he never quite asserts his authority either. Paul Bettany’s turn as Melbourne is equally hurried.
There are pleasures to be had. Emily Blunt is, maybe, too tall and (at first, anyway) too old for the title role. But she’s so charismatic that she manages to inject enough passion into the performance to momentarily dispel memories of earlier, fustier Victorias such as Anna Neagle, Judi Dench and Irene Dunne.
Still, it would have been nice if Jean-Marc Vallée, director of the Canadian hit C.R.A.Z.Y., had noted the standout performances by Jim Broadbent and Miranda Richardson – hilariously fruity as the warring King William and Duchess of Kent – and allowed a tad more camp frivolity into proceedings.
As things stand, you may not be all that amused.
