This movie surprised me when it came out. I saw it while on break when I was working at the movie theatre and loved it so much I brought my wife to see it after work, then saw it again a few more times while it was still there. It’s really a great little film and my wife ended up loving it as much as I did. We laughed later when we both gave it to each other for christmas that year. But did we take one back for a refund…no we did not, we still own both copies! We keep one and lend the other out to everyone we know!
The Young Victoria (2009) stars Emily Blunt as Queen Victoria and concentrates on her struggle as a young Queen early on and her romance to Prince Albert played by Rupert Friend. There are some very fine actors in supporting roles as well with Paul Bettany, Mark Strong, Jim Broadbent, and Miranda Richardson. It was directed by Jean-Marc Vallee, who would go on to critical acclaim with the follow-up movies, Dallas Buyers Club (2013), Wild (2014) and Demolition (2015). He’s a versatile and incredibly strong director. All of these films are definitely worth watching, if you get the chance!
The film was written by Julian Fellowes, who won an Oscar for his screenplay of Gosford Park (2001), but who’s most recognized for being the creator of the hugely popular TV Show, Downton Abbey! I personally think he’s one of the best things to come out of Great Britain in the last decade and love just about everything he does. Let’s hope he continues to create fascinating characters and incredible drama! By the way the art direction and the costumes in The Young Victoria are amazing! Patrice Vermette and Maggie Gray were nominated for an Oscar for the Art Direction and Sandy Powell won the Academy Award for her Costume designs! Once you start looking at the amazing detail in this movie, it gets hard to just focus on the story…it’s that amazing. These things were very expensive to recreate for the time period, just to give you a few examples; Emily Blunt’s costumes worn were insured for £10,000 each and the very tall green bed cost £25,000 to build. The Duke and Duchess of Rutland, owners of Belvoir Castle, purchased it after filming.