We are entertained...

The hard faced and hard hearted ruler of an empire. That's the picture most people have of Queen Victoria. We have seen the most of her on screen in the post-Albert years.

So this film decides to look at something different, events (surprisingly enough from the title) from the life of the young Victoria, the vast majority of which are taken from her own diaries. The script concentrates on her younger years, from needing to be accompanied up and down her own staircase by an assistant, to battling her mother's advisor Sir John Conroy and his plans for a regency, and finally becoming Queen just after her 18th birthday. And then there's the matter of Prince Albert...

Essentially, it's a simple enough story, well told. The script is good and Emily Blunt is superb as Victoria, thoroughly believable as the vulnerable yet strong young Queen, warm when required, cold if the situation calls for it. Rupert Friend is not bad as Albert, but it is elsewhere in the cast that the interesting performances appear. Paul Bettany's Lord Melbourne is suitably slimy, as you would expect from a politician of the day. Miranda Richardson (Who's Queen? Oh, not me this time?) is perfect as Victoria's mother, and fellow Blackadder performer Jim Broadbent (who played Albert in Blackadder's Christmas Carol) turns in a great performance as the King who is hanging in there until Victoria is ready to be Queen.



Whilst there were a few factual inaccuracies (chiefly the assassination attempt, where in real life the shots missed completely), the team behind the film (including producers Martin Scorsese and Sarah Ferguson) have largely resisted the temptation to "Hollywood up" the story and it was an enjoyable film. And it's certainly not "too German" as our current monarch has described it! How can a film that's essentially about the last monarch from the House of Hanover who married someone from the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha can be described as "too German" is beyond me!