The last weekend before my final vote on SAG nominations, I had pretty much finalized my list. Had it all set. The only performance I had left to see was Emily Blunt in "The Young Victoria". I hadn't seen reviews; the film wasn't out yet. Well, what are the chances, right? No way I'd have to rethink or revamp. I popped in the DVD late Saturday night and couldn't stop watching. Damn. Back to the drawing board.
For a film about a notoriously stodgy and inflexible monarch, this film is anything but stodgy. This is the YOUNG Victoria, a spitfire trapped in convention but with an iron will. The story-telling is clear and forthright, full of political and personal intrigue, and downright interesting for one of those English royal family in distress, drawing room dramas. Emily Blunt forgoes the stiff and formal Victoria often seen in her post-Albert characterizations, for a more spirited and far more entertaining Queen. No stick-up-the-royal-arse Victoria this. Her performance is terrific, even if it did force me to redo my list.
Produced by the former Dutchess of York, Sarah Ferguson, maybe we've actually found an outlet for ex-princesses, making movies about life behind the palace walls. Oh, and I'm glad to see that all those drunken foreign journalists over at the Golden Globes agreed with me. They so rarely get it right. Maybe the Oscar voters will too.
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