My dictation in the Movie Dictator Club for the month of June, 2011 is Canadian, eh!

Written By: François Boulay & Jean-Marc Vallée
Directed By: Jean-Marc Vallée

Father and son relationships are hard, or so I’ve heard. I’ve also heard they are great, as well as terrible, unforgiving, devastating, wonderful, and so on. I’ve heard a lot about the relationship that develops between a father and a son as that son grows up, but I know nothing of that sort of relationship myself. My father wasn’t around when I was growing up, the man who became my father didn’t enter the motion picture of my life until I was already a legal, physical, and mental (okay, mental is stretching it) adult. I’ve always been amazed at the intricacies of the parent/child relationship, but I’m especially in awe of the father/son relationship, and C.R.A.Z.Y. managed to tap into that awe.

C.R.A.Z.Y. isn’t a film that went where I expected, it didn’t go down the typical troubled family, rebellious youth, or homosexually blossoming path that were open to the film. When I figured out what the core issue of C.R.A.Z.Y. was going to be, Zachary’s possible homosexuality clashing with the heteronormative views of his father, I thought I had the movie pegged. As the time rolled by I was surprised that easy avenues were left unexplored, and in fact Zachary’s homosexuality melded into the much larger issue of a boy’s relationship with his father. I’m not saying that the film is not about homosexuality, I’d be an idiot if I didn’t recognized that homosexuality plays a large role in the thematic depth of the film. François Boulay & Jean-Marc Vallée did, however, write a script where homosexuality wasn’t the issue being tackled. The bond between father and son is the issue being tackled, Zachary doesn’t believe in that bond to begin with, his homosexuality only serves to further enhance his disbelief.

By not taking any of the easy paths C.R.A.Z.Y. has to rely on the audience engaging with the films characters. Because the film is using a serious social issue to look at a relationship within a family it can’t rely on large moments and prophetic monologues. There’s an intimate atmosphere that C.R.A.Z.Y. transmits, as the characters grow older I had no choice but to grow with them. I was interested in the choices they would make, in the ways that Zachary would continue to frame his world. Intimacy is never forgotten in C.R.A.Z.Y., it’s the reason that moments such as Raymond suddenly defending Zachary at Christian’s wedding is powerful. As the audience we know where Raymond is headed, there is no question of that, but a moment like the wedding allows us to see deeper into him and deeper into the things that make this family tick. It’s apropos that Raymond’s moment of defending is followed by Gervais, the father, lashing out at Zachary. His son’s homosexuality has reached a level that is far too intimate for him, he can’t hide it in the back of his mind any longer. C.R.A.Z.Y. is full of moments such as the wedding, those moments drew me in and allowed me to grow with the Beaulieu family more than any conventional path would have.

There are instances in C.R.A.Z.Y. where the director, Jean-Marc Vallée, is a little too flashy. The zoom that goes from Zachary’s room in Jerusalem to following him in the desert is one such instance. It’s a decent piece of cinema by itself, but within the larger context of the film it stands out as too flashy and attention seeking. There aren’t many flashy moments, but that is also a problem because when they do occur they stick out like a sore thumb. C.R.A.Z.Y. works best in its small moments when the story it has to tell unfolds naturally.

I left C.R.A.Z.Y. convinced that Gervais was in his heart a good father, and that Zachary was a good son. Their relationship suffered some bumps along the way, but the relationship strengthened because of those bumps. C.R.A.Z.Y. is an engaging film with a relationship that I cared about at its center. C.R.A.Z.Y. can be viewed as a coming out story, but I think that is selling it short. C.R.A.Z.Y. is about a relationship, and a character’s homosexuality just happens to be a part of that relationship.

Rating:

***1/2

Cheers,
Bill

Walkabout (Nicolas Roeg, 1971). A teenage schoolgirl and her youthful brother are left stranded in the Australian outback after their geologist father introduces his temple to the business end of a firearm right after setting their car aflame. Their hard walk towards civilization is helped when they encounter an Aboriginal boy whose naturally more adept at traversing the hostile terrain than they are. Roeg’s directing has a drifting, unreal quality, like a damaged dream quietly infesting a sun-baked mind. All of the relationships carrying a gripping weight, even though (or perhaps because) they’re sketched in with so little dialogue, such a dearth of shared information. Roeg is more interested in the feel of interactions than the details of it, and he allows things to remain mysterious without becoming so inflated as to become actual mysteries. It is about mood more than incident, and has a burrowing, haunting quality.

Invictus (Clint Eastwood, 2009). This well-meaning drama about shared pride in the Rugby World Cup helping to heal wounds in South Africa after the end of Apartheid is a prime example of way artistic nobility can drain all the energy from a film. Eastwood’s workmanlike approach as a director has its uses, but its particularly ill-suited to a driving sports epic. His best attempt at conveying the tension of a tight contest is to present the action more and more slowly as the game clock ticks down, as if the film is approaching the edge of the universe and time is grinding to a halt. Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon do yeoman’s work in roles that are more symbol than character. In fact, Freeman is strong enough as the new installed president Nelson Mandela that it seems a missed opportunity that the film isn’t a biopic more clearly focused on the former political prisoner turned inspiring head of state.

The Young Victoria (Jean-Marc Vallée, 2009). It’s the sort of costume drama filled with castle intrigued that sets certain hearts aflutter. It’s a harder sell for me, I’ll admit. Vallée’s direction is finely structured, luxuriating in the elegant art direction and costume design without getting overburdened by it. He mostly focuses of the woman rising to the throne, played with refinement by Emily Blunt. She manages to make the period dialogue feel nicely natural, playing each moment honestly, keeping even the biggest scenes free of deadening pomposity. However, she doesn’t manage to dig especially deeply into the role either. It’s as much fine presentation as earthy performance. Most of the supporting turns are suitable in a Masterpiece Theatre mold, although it’s quite fun to watch Jim Broadbent pivot from his usual geniality into a thundering declaration of authority as the faltering King William IV.

Jennifer’s Body (Karyn Kusama, 2009). Of course, the primary curiosity is the screenplay by Academy Award winner Diablo Cody, following her breakthrough tale of brightly sarcastic teen pregnancy with a metaphor for high school misery that ups the body count. Megan Fox plays the title character, a posturing wild child whose flirtation with a painfully cool band gigging in her backwater town leads to an unfortunate demonic infestation that has her taking big hearty bites of her classmates. The difficulty many of the actors have with the tumbling dominoes of aggressively slangy dialogue simply proves what a splendid thespian magic act Ellen Page pulled off as Juno MacGuff. Fox actually does fairly well playing Jennifer before the monster movie conventions take over, nicely hinting at the vulnerability and shaky self-esteem behind her mean girl exterior, which unfortunately doesn’t mean that her friendship with the pretty nerd played by Amanda Seyfried makes a bit of sense. It’s a mere contrivance in a movie that eventually is nothing but.

3.5/5

Future Queen Victoria’s (Emily Blunt) mother (Miranda Richardson) and stepfather (Mark Strong) desperately tried to convince their daughter to sign away her power until she was 25 years old before she turned 18. However, Victoria wanted to run her empire despite her age and inexperience. Meanwhile, she also had to deal with Lord Melbourne (Paul Bettany) who craved more power and Prince Albert (Rupert Friend) who was sent to court Victoria in order to gain political advantage. I am somewhat torn about this film because while I did admire its consistently strong acting (particularly from Blunt) and it had an unconventional feel in terms of telling a period picture, I felt like it did not have enough gravity to really get me to be interested in its history. Perhaps period movies are just not my cup of tea. However, I really did try to get into the conflicted characters and the difficult circumstances that plagued them. For instance, I empathized with Victoria’s mother but at the same time I wanted to shake her because she chose her current husband over her daughter time and time again. I understood her fears of not being wanted in a society where aging women were dispensable so she clung onto people that could protect her. I related to her because wanting to be valued is a universal feeling. Furthermore, I had a feeling that the film had a hard time balancing Queen Victoria’s political decisions and the repercussions of her actions (and inaction) alongside her romance with Prince Albert. Just when one of the two became interesting, it switched gears and I was left frustrated because I wanted to feel more involved. Since I did not know much about England’s history, a lot of the plot was a surprise to me. The scenes were elegantly shot particularly the scenes during and after Victoria was finally crowned, the dinner scene in King William’s court (Jim Broadbent) when everybody had to try to be polite even though not everybody liked each other, and the extreme close-ups when Victoria and Albert were face-to-face after not seeing each other for extended periods of time. “The Young Victoria,” directed by Jean-Marc Vallée, needed more focus in terms of Queen Victoria’s role in politics. In the end, I did not feel much growth from her in terms of managing her empire; the feeling I got was she needed a man to help her run her empire. If it were not for the title cards in the last two minutes, I would have came to a conclusion that Queen Victoria was not an effective leader of her people.

When one thinks of British monarchs, the word “stuffy” likely comes to mind. But the eponymous protagonist of The Young Victoria is anything but prim and proper, despite the best efforts of those around her.

The Young Victoria follows the life of a 17-year-old Queen Victoria (played by Emily Blunt) as she takes to the throne when her uncle dies. She faces adversity both from a jealous mother and an unruly public, and the film explores her first few years in power.

Part of what works so well about The Young Victoria is the small timeframe that Jean-Marc Vallee limits the story to. It gives the film an intimate feeling, and it’s a nice counterpoint to the sweeping epics that many films about royalty become. Though the subject matter is grand, the characters feel well-developed, authentic, and timeless.

This is partly thanks to some of the key performances. Blunt plays Victoria with just the right amount of modernity, and her performance is electric. Whether Victoria is playing with her pet dog or facing the wrath of the nation, Blunt embodies a woman who is trying to break free of the rigid limits imposed upon her perfectly.

Rupert Friend (Pride & Prejudice, Cheri) also gives a highly charming (but impactful) performance as Victoria’s suitor, Prince Albert. As the film progresses and his character becomes more unsettled, Friend proves that he can pull off the dramatic scenes just as aptly as the earlier light-hearted ones. He and Blunt have undeniable chemistry, and their joint work injects some fire into this occasionally dry film.

While The Young Victoria offers breathtaking costuming, a lovely score, and a visually impressive representation of life as a British monarch, it lacks the quality of storytelling and pacing that would make it a more compelling film. Victoria faces the disapproval of many of her subjects, yet the moments involving their unrest aren’t played out for full dramatic effect. Instead, most of the film’s interest lies in her relationship with Albert.

At parts, The Young Victoria drags. Paul Bettany is wasted as the bland Lord Melbourne, who serves as Victoria’s advisor, and the politics surrounding Victoria’s reign become tedious. The film’s real strength comes when it focuses on Victoria and her frustrations, insecurities, and relationships. Friend and especially Blunt add the proper spark to make the film well worth seeking out.

7/10

Jean-Marc Lallee’s Crazy, follows the story of a one son’s homosexual awakening into manhood as he lives a typical suburban family-life with his five siblings. Juxtaposed with the fatal story of his drug addicted oldest brother, Christian. Crazy is less a rights-of-passage tale and more a a tale of one family dealing with traditional Catholic values and the church’s intolerance of homosexuality. Although much valuable time is spent on the periphery storylines to the detriment of the main plot, it’s both touching and beautiful with moments of humour. A well conceived film, inspired by the life of Francois Boulay, who co-wrote with the director to receive the Audience Award at the Toronto Film Festival.

Dominated by her possessive mother and her bullying consort since childhood, teenager Victoria (Emily Blunt) refuses to allow them the power of acting as her regent in the last days of her uncle, William IV’s rule. Her German cousin  and love interest Albert (Rupert Friend) is encouraged to court her for solely political motives but, following her accession at age 18, finds he is falling for her and is dismayed at her reliance on trusty premier Melbourne. Victoria is impressed by Albert’s philanthropy which is akin to her own desire to help her subjects. However her loyalty to Melbourne, perceived as a self-seeker, almost causes a constitutional crisis and it is Albert who helps restore her self-confidence. She proposes and they marry, Albert proving himself not only a devoted spouse, prepared to take an assassin’s bullet for her, but an agent of much-needed reform, finally endorsed by an admiring Melbourne.

Matt
Rating: 4 out of 10

I wish you could punch a movie.That’s all I could think about when I watched this dreadfully boring film.

I can’t be the only one who could give a rat’s flea-infested ass about the English royal family, can I? It’s just so dramatic, privileged, disconnected, and weird. I mean, these people marry their own family members and we act like they’re so great.

And that’s what is at the heart of this movie — a love story between two royal inbreeds.

There is nothing I can relate to in this movie. It has detached characters who live in a world that is remote and foreign to me, but boring. The film is directed by newbie Jean-Marc Vallée, but this is essentially a high-budget PBS movie. There wasn’t much to work with for a script, which is why there was so much emphasis on the costumes — which were excellent. Of course, I don’t really care about costumes, either.

The Young Victoria | Jean-Marc Vallée

By now, whenever I hear about a royalty costume drama, I can tell what the major plot points will be. There will be a power struggle, a forbidden romance, a love triangle, a birth, and an assassination attempt. So, when I see a movie of this kind, I don’t necessarily judge it based on its ploy, unless it completely gets in the way. I like to judge it in terms of the quality of the filmmaking, from the script, to the makeup. Looking at the last costume dramas that have won the Oscar for Best Costume Desing, I’ve only liked two of them. Marie Antoinette was very creative in its production design and costumes, and it featured a great performance from Kristen Dunst. The Duchess while it had a less interesting story, the darker mood, the lavish production, and the performances from Kiera Knightley and Ralph Fiennes make it worth watching. As for the others, Elizabeth: The Golden Age was as dull as it could be and was a disappointment given the greatness of the first movie. And The Young Victoria was also a disappointment given what I had hoped Emily Blunt would do with the role.

The Young Victoria, as you might have guessed it, takes on the early years of Queen Victoria’s reign. The movie starts some time before she becomes queen. She is almost 18, but her mom (Miranda Richardson) and the controller of her state (Mark Strong), want her to sign a form of Regency, which would allow her mom to rule the kingdom until Victoria was ready, but in reality he would be the one ruling. Then there is her uncle the king of Belgium who wants to have the English armed forces at his disposal, so he trains his nephew (Rupert Friend) to woo Victoria so that he can get what he wants. What follows is a power struggle, a love story, a child birth, and an assassination attempt.

The reason why this movie failed to reach my expectations mostly comes from the script. Jullian Fellow wrote the wonderful Gosford Park but here he delivered a very by-the-numbers script where none of his characters or his situations are well developed, in fact I did not care about what would happen to any of them.  Jean Marc-Vallée’s direction didn’t help either. He sticks to close to the script most of the time, so when he tries to add some style, it feels out of place. Then there is the production. The art direction is nice, but unoriginal. The score and the cinematography are of the cookie-cutter kind. And Sandy Powell’s costmes are not as good as one would hope from a movie such as this. The seem rather bland. She did not deserve to win an Oscar the same year that Bright Star, Coco Avant Chanel, and The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus were nominated. Hopefully the Academy will listen to Powell’s acceptance speech and start nominating and rewarding more contemporary costumes.

As for the performances, there are only three worth mentioning: Jim Broadbent, Rupert Friend, and Emily Blunt. Broadbent seemed to have a lot of fun in his role, and he inject some needed energy to the dull first part. Friend easily give the best performance in the movie. He is very convincing, and I did believe his emotions, despite the fact that the way the character was written should not have allowed me to do so. From Blunt, I was expecting a break-through performance a la Cate Blanchett in Elizabeth but she did not deliver. She is not bad, but she did not command the screen in the same way that Blanchett did. Hell, she didn’t even command the screen as well as she did in The Devil Wears Prada.

The Young Victoria offered an interesting story, but the script did not allow it to rise above failed costume dramas. It is not horrible, but it seemed that not even its actors were very interested in the project. Let’s hope this year’s batch of costume dramas deliver more than this did.

In 1837, Victoria’s uncle King William (Jim Broadbent) died and she was crowned the queen of England at 18. As everyone anticipated the coronation, they all spent the year prior plotting to gain her favour and confidence. Her mother’s (Miranda Richardson) controller Sir John (Mark Strong) is the most adamant and unsuccessful as Victoria has already seen his influence on the Duchess. On the other hand, Lord Melbourne (Paul Bettany) manages to charm his way to the position of her personal adviser, furthering his own ambitions in the process. Finally there is Albert (Rupert Friend), hand-selected by Victoria’s uncle the king of Belgium (Thomas Kretschmann) to seduce the soon-to-be queen. However, they are surprised when they connect on a much deeper level and must decide which to put first: country or love.

For a historical picture the pace is relatively good with enough new plot developments to maintain a steady momentum. On the other hand, there are a lot of important details to pay attention to while watching to understand the gravity of a mistake or the significance of a relationship. There is no attempt made to draw attention to particularly pertinent pieces of dialogue so it is often not until the element comes into play that one realizes what the characters were talking about earlier was of importance.

All the actors give strong performances. Blunt exhibits the petulance of a child one moment, then the strength of a ruler the next; so many emotions are required of her and she displays them all credulously. Bettany is like a snake gaining an advantageous position with his forked tongue; it’s always obvious he knows he’s being deceitful. Conversely, Friend is sincere and thoughtful, genuinely resembling a school boy in love when communicating with Victoria. Strong is simply easy to hate as he reveals no redeeming qualities.

The sets are eye-catching and shown repeatedly as the story jumps from palace to palace. Victoria was the first member of the royal family to live in Buckingham Palace. In addition, the costumes are fitting though few of the women’s dresses appear extravagantly noble. The love theme for the film is Sinead O’Connor’s “Only You.”

Special features include: deleted scenes; “The Real Queen Victoria”; and four behind-the-scenes featurettes: a making-of, “The Coronation,” “The Wedding,” and “Lavish History: A Look at the Costumes and Locations.”

We'd be ever so pleased if you'd join us at the coronation

Man, French people. They are pretty good at directing movies.

This is what I thought after I watched Jean-Marc Vallee’s The Young Victoria, an unexpectedly nuanced, well-drawn period piece about Queen Victoria in her 17th and 18th years of life.

Imagine my surprise when I did a little recherche on the director and realized that Jean-Marc had directed Quebecois coming-of-age flick C.R.A.Z.Y. Jean-Marc ain’t no Frenchie, he’s Canadian! And for days after I saw his most recent movie, my friends and I were waxing poetic about the soft, adept touch of the French. We admired the directorial restraint, the subtlety involved in making as delicate a movie about as gargantuan a personage; we lauded his ability to avoid obviousness at all costs; etc. And then Jean-Marc had to go and ruin all our Gallic stereotyping with his Canadianness.

I saw C.R.A.Z.Y. almost 4 years ago in France. Apparently, French people have a hard time understanding les Quebecois, and this French-language movie was subtitled… in French. Ha. The film centers on a teenager, Zach, who is a bit of a space oddity in his very Catholic, traditional, suburban family home. Lots of friction between father and son ensues. Son wants to just live rocknroll, dad says he has to get a real job. It was the kind of movie that makes you laugh, cry, etc, and mainly illustrates the saving power of music (Bowie, Pink Floyd, 70s stuff like that, specifically) to a young teenage soul.

C.R.A.Z.Y. didn’t get much press States-side, or probably anywhere, but it was mosdef one of those movies that actually conveys an understanding of what it’s like to be 17. Luckily for us, Jean-Marc applied this understanding to The Young Victoria, and made one of the most excellent and yet understated movies about growing up that came out last year. Move over, langorous youth of New Moon and magical adolescents of HP: The Half Blood Prince.

Remember all the hullabaloo about Marie Antoinette? It features a no wave soundtrack! And pretty young American things! Ooh, so unconventional! Sofia Coppola aimed to repaint the young French royals as young Gossip Girl cast members. And sure, that movie was totally pretty, but it was also totally uncompelling. The danger of portraying vapid shit is becoming the vapid shit.

Coppola’s mistake was to conceptualize history within the trappings of our contemporary understanding of glamour; therefore, she didn’t latch onto anything essential or important, either in Marie’s time or ours. Maybe that was the point–but still, glamour is all relative, so the movie was all fluff, or to be precise, mille-fueille icing.

Jean-Marc Vallee, fortunately, chose the opposite path for his period piece. Of course, he made a pretty movie. But he latched on to the only things that are always essential: love, family, power struggles, and the life of the mind. And then he applied these essential life factors to the young royals in his film (Victoria and Albert, specifically), and what he came up with was a totally plausible, sympathetic and yes, even TIMELESS portrayal of what it is to come of age and also be royalty.

To sum up the plot: Victoria is the heir to the English throne but her uncle, the king, (played memorably as a fizzle-headed jolly old chap by Jim Broadbent) is going to be dead soon. Lots of other people want the power Victoria is about to inherit; they jostle. King dies. Victoria is queened, but she’s been sheltered all her life, so has to learn how not to get swindled, and fast. She finds a cute indie rock boyfriend from Belgium, they write letters (probably drawing cute owls in the margins), get married, lose virginities. Victoria gets swindled a couple times, blushes, learns from it, moves on, rules England. Fin.

This movie doesn’t pretend to be more than it is; it’s just about one lady’s very momentary struggle to find her voice amongst a chorus of manly voices. It’s about having butterflies in your stomach when your new Belgian boyfriend touches your hand. It’s sometimes even a little bit about pretty dresses, and it doesn’t touch imperialism with a stick. But still, ultimately this movie is about politics, both personal and political, and how to balance those two spheres… specifically, how to balance these spheres with a pearly glow in your English cheeks, while a golden hue is cast over everything by some excellent Polish cinematographer… you get the idea. Go see this movie, you won’t be disappointed.

Director:

Cast: Emily Blunt, Rupert Friend, Paul Bettany, Miranda Richardson, Jim Broadbent

Stuff you need to know: Based on a true story of Queen Victoria (England) the early years, back when Buckingham Palace was first built.

Who SHOULD see it:

-         Romantics

-         Brits

-         the high brow

-         people fascinated with this type of history

Who should NOT see it:

-        rednecks

-        a group of dudes on a guy’s night

-        people who can’t really understand thick accents

-        haters of monarchy and the like

What I think: A good story and a part of the story, of a real person, that we don’t normally hear.  This is about the “life” not as much the “service” of the longest running (to date) monarch of England.  It is very romanticized and interesting story but I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone who doesn’t already really like movies about queens and princesses or any kind of royalty or Old England… you know “Victorian” type stuff.  Its got all that you would expect as far as “Victorian” goes – ball gowns, ladies in waiting, a waltz, love story, etc.  So basically, if you are just into this type of story you will love it, if not, you might appreciate the history but you aren’t missing anything.

Great performance by Emily Blunt.

Mandy’s Point System: I was unable to convert the points over from the metric system, that junk is confusing.

Would you buy it: Probably not.

The Young Victoria isn’t the first movie of its kind, and I’m sure it won’t be the last. It seems like every few years there’s another monarch they bring out and give the big screen treatment to. While some of them just sort of blend together, The Young Victoria manages to stand out from the rest.

If you’ve seen the trailers you might go into the theater expecting a different movie. The previews make it look like it’s filled with double-crossings and political intrigue, much like Elizabeth, or Newsies. And in the beginning, at least, that’s what you get. Mark Strong as Sir John Conroy and Miranda Richardson as the Duchess of Kent serve as the film’s baddies, trying to wrestle power away from Victoria as she’s still trying to find her way in this new life. So you settle in expecting to see this for the rest of movie when suddenly things shift focus and Victoria’s relationship and marriage to Prince Albert takes center stage. And while I really liked that aspect of it, it takes almost all the tension out of the film. I mean, we know the two end up together. Screenwriter Julian Fellowes took a few creative liberties to inject some unpredictability into his script.

So the film goes from political intrigue to love story, and while it does make things seem a little uneven, that second half is just as enjoyable to watch as the first. Like I said, we know they end up together, so you’re able to just sit back and enjoy it. Blunt delivers much more than a one-note performance, and clearly shows that she’s capable of taking the reigns as a leading lady. Watching her run around as a newlywed, kissing her husband and generally being in love isn’t anything we haven’t seen before, but you find yourself smiling at the entire thing almost despite yourself. You’re kind of sucked in from start to stop. Rupert Friend as Prince Albert is subdued. He offers a powerful performance almost without you knowing it, and could probably be considered the film’s secret weapon.

Emily Blunt takes a role, the English monarch, that’s really never a sure thing. With it having been done so many times, this kind of movie can really be hit or miss, but she makes it her own. From the very beginning, she makes the character relatable. We see the sheltered young princess, unsure of herself, yet who decides at an early age that she won’t be deterred from what she sees as her birthright. We see her slowly transform into the benevolent queen, searching for her equal, and eventually finding it in her husband. Yet there’s still an assumption on her part that, as the queen, she is the more equal of the two. It’s all a lot of fun to watch, and I’m hoping this one gets more attention than I think it will. Definitely recommended.

The Young Victoria stars Emily Blunt as the princess who ascends the throne at just 18 years old. Looked upon as young and easily influenced, an assortment of royals, even her own mother (Miranda Richardson), pressures her to make decisions for their personal gain rather than the good of the country. It isn’t until her budding relationship with her cousin Prince Albert (Rupert Friend) transitions into a marriage that she realizes, unlike everyone else in her life, he has no intentions of being controlling and overbearing, just to be her loving husband and equal.

ComingSoon.net had the opportunity to attend a roundtable interview with the actress who enlightened us on the burdens and joys of taking on such a dynamic and historically significant character.

Click here to read the interview.

Click here to read more.

The Young Victoria‘nın konusu 63 yıllık bir süreyle Birleşik Krallık’ta en fazla hükümdarlık sürmüş I. Victoria’nın hayatını anlatıyor.Ama adından da anlaşılabileceği gibi genç zamanlarını.Amcası IV. William’ın ölümü üzerine tahta 18 yaşında çıkan Victoria’nın hayatından tahta çıkış ve Prens Albert’la evlilik dönemlerini izliyoruz filmde, ki bana göre tadı damağımızda kalıyor.

Özellikle 2005 yapımı C.R.A.Z.Y filmiyle tanınan Jean-Marc Vallee yönetiyor filmi.Yemek sırasında bardaklarla yaptığı kamera oyununa hasta olduğumu ekleyerek, Vallee‘nin yönetmenliğinin oldukça iyi olduğunu söylemek istiyorum.Bu tarz filmlerde kostümlerle göz boyanabileceği düşünülse de bana göre yönetmenlik de en az kostümler kadar önemli.Çok berbat bir televizyon yönetmenini koyun Marie Antoinette‘in başına da göreyim.Sofia Coppola olmadan Marie Antoinette nasıl bir hiçse bu diğerleri için de geçerli.

Senaryo ise Gosford Park ile Oscar almış Julian Fellowes‘e ait.Kendisinin yeni Alfonso Cuaron projesi The Tourist‘in senaryosunu da yazdığını ekleyeyim.Filmin oyuncuları ise Angelina Jolie ve Johnny Depp olacakmış.Konumuza tekrar dönersek, Fellowes iyi bir iş çıkarmış ama kesinlikle dört dörtlük değil.Hatta bir sürü kusur sayabilirim size.Bir kere filmin ilk yarısı inanılmaz derecede yavaş işledi ve klişelerle doluydu.Ne olacağını zaten daha önceki dönem filmlerinde görmüştük.İkinci yarısında ise senaryo delice bir hız aldı ve zevki de o zaman çıktı zaten.Eksi puanlar buradan gelsin.

Kadroda ise hakikaten harika isimler var.Victoria’yı canlandıran Emily Blunt tek kelimeyle harika.Zannediyorum The Devil Wears Prada‘da Blunt bize ne kadar yetenekli olduğunu haber vermişti.Bu sene Cheri‘de de izlediğim Rupert Friend ise Cheri‘den bambaşka bir role bürünmüş.Bir sene içerisinde iki dönem filminde oynamasına önce talihsizlik diye yaklaşmış olsam da taban tabana zıt bu iki role de apayrı renkler katmış Friend.Ben bu beye dikkat derim.Kadro bu kadarla bitmiyor.Başta kısaca izlediğimiz Jim Broadbent ve filmde iyiyle kötü olmak arasında giden anne rolündeki Miranda Richardson filmin deneyimlilerinden.Yan rollerin başarılı oyuncusu Mark Strong bir başka süpriz.Bir türlü hak ettiği değeri görmeyen Paul Bettany gözüme takılan son isim.

Bu tarz filmlerde çok önemli olduğunu düşündüğüm müzikler ise fena değildi.The Duchess‘inkilerle boy ölçüşemezdi tabi ama rahatsız da etmedi.Filmin müziklerini besteleyen isim Ilan Eshkeri bu arada.Kendisini Stardust ve Hannibal Rising’den tanıyan vardır.

Kısacası film ortalamanın üzerinde bir seyirdeydi.Yazdıklarımdan pek kusuru yokmuş gibi görünse de senaryodaki durgunluğun gitmediği sıralarda hakikaten sıkılıyorsunuz.Ama Victoria’ya ve Emily Blunt‘a karşı koyamıyorum.Bence izleyin.

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電影The Young Victoria圍繞以上這個問題敍述了Victoria從女童轉變為女王的過程。
雖然是王位繼承人，但身為女性的Victoria從小就受到周圍大人們施加的各種壓力，誰都想通過控制她而得以控制整個大不列顛。
其中最為露骨的是她自己的母親，當唯一的親情都無法依靠時Victoria迫不及待地想展翅飛翔。
電影中一盤象棋讓她透露了心聲：
“Do you ever feel like a chess piece yourself? In a game being played against your will.”
登基後她雖離開了母親的陰影，卻又投入Lord Melbourne的掌心，直至嫁給Albert王子後才慢慢尋找到自己。

The Young Victoria並非一部政治電影，許多嚴肅話題都只是一筆帶過，著重描述的是Victoria與Albert之間的情意綿綿。
當然，這一對的感情深厚是有目共睹的，Albert英年早逝後Victoria為他戴孝40年。
早在初次遇見Victoria前很久Albert就在為這場婚姻做準備，可是做了再多的準備工作第一次的相遇還是那麽不知所措。
電影中王子對公主一見鍾情，而公主一開始卻不想嫁給王子。
因爲她心中太過明白這是一場政治婚姻，作爲英國最尊貴的女性她不甘心自己走任何一步都得聽從他人的安排。
登基後的她高処不勝寒，漸漸被Albert的真心所感動，最後為自己找到了好歸宿。
如果說Victoria内心的轉變在電影中顯得水到渠成的話，那Albert最早爲何愛上Victoria則顯得説服力不夠。
在只見過兩面的情況下，單單因爲對方略有性格長得又算可愛就愛上，這樣的王子天真無邪到有點誇張。
婚後既有甜蜜，亦有摩擦，女王與妻子兩個角色有時很難同時扮演：
“I wear the crown! And if there are mistakes they will be my mistakes, and no one else will make them! No one, not even you!”
無論歷史究竟如何，這段姻緣從各個方面都是極度成功的。
婚後的21年兩人一共生了九個孩子，他們之間恩愛是肯定的。（題外話，平均兩年就懷孕一次，Victoria女王究竟有多少時間來管理國家……？）
政治上Albert成爲Victoria最大的支柱，經他的手通過了許多革新，特別是文化與科技在這段時間受到了發揚光大。
可惜他們的愛沒有遺傳給子孫，Victoria死了沒多久就打起來了。

這部影片最出彩的就是服裝，看起來很符合當年的時尚，據説每件的製作都價值昂貴，從頭到尾在視覺上讓人受到了絕對的享受。
之前沒聼說過此片的導演Jean-Marc Vallée，看過The Young Victoria覺得他還算有潛力，希望以後再接再厲。
不過讓Mark Wahlberg每隔兩分鐘就說一次fuck的Martin Scorsese能製作出如此少女情懷的電影真是非常不可思議。
同為製片人的還有Sarah Ferguson，光這個名字就讓片中皇室生活細節的可信度提高了不少。
演Victoria女王的Emily Blunt看著很眼熟，後來才想起原來是The Devil Wears Prada裏的秘書甲，現在終于媳婦熬成婆了，電影中舞會那幕的心動被她抓得很到位。
Albert王子我怎麽看都像是Orlando Bloom的雙胞胎，在網上搜了一下發現全世界都跟我有同樣的想法。當初在Pride & Prejudice裏演Mr. Wickham的時候沒覺得Rupert Friend特別像誰啊，不知道他的基因是怎麽運作的。我不厚道地疑問一下Keira Knightley每天跟他大眼瞪小眼的時候會不會想到身為Elizabeth Swann的那段情緣。

總結就是，The Young Victoria是部浪漫宮廷故事，喜歡看美麗服飾的同學千萬別錯過。