Watched: The Young Victoria

It's not that the The Young Victoria is bad, per se. It's well-paced, beautifully shot, excellently costumed, and has some solid performances. Maybe it's because I have watched so many of these period films- if there isn't some kind of powerhouse, aim-for-the-fences performance a la Kiera Knightley practically breaking her jaw in Pride and Prejudice or restrained, slow-burn like Colin Firth (in the mini-series. You know.) or Emma Watson or SOMETHING to set it aside from the other ye olde time movies, it kind of turns into background noise for me. Though I liked parts of Bright Star and of The Other Boleyn Girl, I felt that way about both of them. And I kind of feel that way about this too.

So yeah, the principals are convincing as a young, loving couple and Mark Strong is predictably good at playing a Mark Strong-esque villian type and oh! the sister-in-law from Sense and Sensibility shows up as the former queen. Nice to see her not play a mean hobag. Michiel Huisman is charming too, in the 4 minutes he's onscreen as Albert's brother. But if ever there was a case of Hollywood SERIOUSLY sexing up the movie version of real people, it was here. Victoria never looked like Emily Blunt. Seriously. I'm not just being cynical. And while Emily Blunt is lovely and I would much rather watch two hours of her and Mr. Wickham/OrlandoBloom Lite be lovey dovey than read about her royal frumpiness, they're kind of taking some wicked liberties.

But whatevs. I'm just in it for the costumes/cinematography anyway.