tabuno
06-20-2010, 04:16 PM
Considering that Emily Blunt performing as Queen Victoria in a potentially epic, historical movie along with a Golden Globe nomination for best actress, it only raises the question about what went wrong with the movie. While the costume design apparently was a hit with the Academy Awareds, along with a nod to art direction and makeup the rest of the movie seems to have missed something crucial in its telling. YOUNG VICTORIA had some great unspoken, behind the scenes political machinations, even more so than MARIE ANTOINETTE (2006). Unlike the powerful and compelling HOUSE OF MIRTH (2000) plot and dramatic performance of Gillian Anderson, YOUNG VICTORIA seems to have fallen to the huge scope of the the actual historical figure herself who reigned England for more than 60 years.
Lost in the backwash of this movie was the more immediate external societal issues that were occurring at the times and while were given brief mention, didn't seem to intrude except as a climatic encounter towards the end. Perhaps, if YOUNG VICTORIA reflected accurately the disconnect between the Monarchy and the common people, then perhaps the movie just an injustice by not having presented a more holistic examination of the times by including the Queen's ascension along with the parallel storyline of the pain and suffering occurring outside the castle walls at the same time. It would be hard to produce such a movie like YOUNG VICTORIA without turning it into a small picture, examining only the intimate personal, naive trials of a young girl, the stereotypical storyline of evil protectors, and the eventual liberation into a young strong woman. Such two-dimensionalization this movie could have taken and yet it seems to have failed to break into a three-dimensional portrayal of the times as well.
Lost in the backwash of this movie was the more immediate external societal issues that were occurring at the times and while were given brief mention, didn't seem to intrude except as a climatic encounter towards the end. Perhaps, if YOUNG VICTORIA reflected accurately the disconnect between the Monarchy and the common people, then perhaps the movie just an injustice by not having presented a more holistic examination of the times by including the Queen's ascension along with the parallel storyline of the pain and suffering occurring outside the castle walls at the same time. It would be hard to produce such a movie like YOUNG VICTORIA without turning it into a small picture, examining only the intimate personal, naive trials of a young girl, the stereotypical storyline of evil protectors, and the eventual liberation into a young strong woman. Such two-dimensionalization this movie could have taken and yet it seems to have failed to break into a three-dimensional portrayal of the times as well.