The young Victoria (Emily Blunt) is the heir to the throne after her uncle King William IV passes away. Being in the position that Victoria lives through, she is completely sheltered from any activity that will make her path to becoming a queen change. Meanwhile, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (Rupert Friend) is being prepared to be the future husband of Victoria. The prince is constantly taught what Victoria likes and everything about her so that their compatibility increases for marriage to be achieved. Ultimately, Victoria is coming much unprepared to take the crown and must deal with surrounding influences that will do no good in her reign. All while trying to figure out if Prince Albert is really her true love.
The Young Victoria is a romantic drama around the early years of Queen Victoria’s reign and her relationship with Prince Albert. The story is well done and deals with events before and after her coronation. This film managed to capture key events in the early years of Victoria and managed to tell the stories with a good story structure. Emily Blunt delivers a very good and graceful performance. While Rupert Friend does an admiral job playing Prince Albert, Queen Victoria’s love interest. I can’t quite say the story is very straight forward because is not. It is very easy to get entangled by the many things and interests by characters in the film. The best part is perhaps seeing Victoria’s the evolution of her life between the ups and downs on her path to happiness. The hardships one must endure to reach a wanted position. Overall, the story is very well done and told, but by all means is not a breakthrough story. It never attempts to be more than what it is set to be. Never falls out of direction and does the job of telling the story without a hitch.
There is more to The Young Victoria than just the story. The magnificent work with the set, costumes, and make is by far one of the best. Earning Academy Award nominations and winning several BAFTAs along the way for the impressive work. This obviously takes The Young Victoria to a whole new level. How? Well, the entire costume design is amazing and it captures the essence of the era to, perhaps, pin point precision. Every garment features an exquisite amount of details and colors that makes this film worthwhile. Likewise, each set also features an amazing array of details in fact the filmmakers tried to get the majority of key scenes to be as historically accurate as possible. Everything around The Young Victoria looks amazing and every award received is well earned in my opinion. I can’t leave without mentioning the musical score that gives that touch of finesse to a visually beautiful film.
The Young Victoria is not for everyone period. I want to say that there is something there for everyone, but that is really not the case. Most of the film is really a romantic dramatization and I am sure that won’t sit well with everyone. Add the fact that is based around the Victorian era and you got yourself a certain group of fans that will appreciate it. The film is beautiful in every aspect, but I can’t recommend for everyone so I suggest a rental.
The Young Victoria arrives on Blu-ray with a flawless 1080p MPEG4-AVC encode framed at 2.35:1. This is without a doubt one of the best video transfers I have seen this year. Colors are vibrant and very vivid from the moment the film begins all the way to the end credits. Fine details are perfectly rendered and displayed for the viewers from face expressions to every bit of texture on the fascinating set designs and garments that plague the film. Black colors are deep and inky. Skin tones are very natural and lifelike throughout the film. There is also a fine layer of grain found to give it that film like look. This is a marvelous transfer and without a doubt demo quality. Kudos to Sony.
The Young Victoria arrives on Blu-ray with a 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack. This is yet another great audio transfer to compliment an amazing visual presentation. The dialogue is clean, clear, and crisp at all times. The ambiance effects are continuously making themselves present at every opportunity making the film very immersible. The musical score sounds incredible every note is reproduced with pin point accuracy and with the highest quality. The score is surrounded by classic music and it sounds amazing. The bass isn’t used much, but when called upon it delivers the necessary thump to make things sound perfect. This is yet another good job done by Sony and I couldn’t ask for more. This is sure to please audiophiles.
The Young Victoria offers an array of short extras that will keep you busy after the film. While they are not very entertaining they offer some commentary from the cast about all different aspects of the film. Check out below the breakdown of each extra.
Making of Young Victoria – features interviews with the cast and crew of the film
Lavish History: A Look At The Costumes and Locations – The cast and crew talk about the costumes and sets of the film.
The Coronation – features a look at the moment of the coronation and all the work and detail that went into it to try and make as historically accurate as possible.
The Wedding – features a look at the marriage of Queen Victoria to Prince Albert.
The Real Queen Victoria – Cast and crew talk about who was Queen Victoria.
Deleted and Extended Scenes – features 17 in total
Trailers – features movie trailers for The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, Hachi: A Dog’s Tale, Not the Messiah, Extraordinary Measures, Nine, Michael Jackson’s This Is It, Dear John, A Knight’s Tale, and The Other Boleyn Girl.
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The Young Victoria features an interesting looking into the earlier years of Queen Victoria. This film gives the viewers a look at the ups and downs in her life as she is growing up. The film also gives us a glimpse at the early stages of the relationship between Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. This Blu-ray release is fantastic featuring amazing video and audio transfers. The supplements could have been more entertaining, but at the end there’s enough to keep people busy after the credits start rolling. Unfortunately, this is not a film for everyone and made for fans of the genre. I suggest a rental before a potential purchase.
The screen captures are only a small representation of what the Blu-ray looks like and are not representative of Blu-ray’s true quality.
