The Young Victoria

During the Great Depression of the 1930’s Hollywood movies delivered emotional justice to a nation brutalized by Wall Street shenanigans. Films like The Public Enemy, starring Jimmy Cagney as a snappy gangster and Jean Harlow as his snazzy girlfriend, were glamorous revenge fantasies, sticking it to the Man. Frank Capra films, like Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, worked the other side of the street, serving up patriotic-flavored redemption fantasies about simple, decent people (like Jimmy Stewart) triumphing over the corrupt political system.

The recently released British film, The Young Victoria, gives us a little of both at the same time. Like Blind Side, Precious, Julie and Julia and Invictus, this film is part of cinema’s Stimulus Package of heroic tales that prove that anyone can do anything, however formidable the obstacles. All they have to do is be honest, work hard and believe in themselves. It’s intended as triage, a jolt of reassuring can-do.

Emily Blunt (My Summer of Love, The Devil Wears Prada) plays young Victoria, the sole heir-in-waiting to the throne of England. She’s a spirited, thoughtful young girl who has been taught to behave like an old lady by her mother (Miranda Richardson), The Dutchess of Kent. Victoria is not even allowed to walk down stairs by herself, part of a scheme to keep her weak so that the Dutchess and her fuming, feral consort, Sir John Conroy, can rule England as regents.

This Byzantine power play and its dust devils of palace intrigue are, of course, staples of the heavy drama section of the Western canon. But French Canadian director Jean-Marc Vallee manages to keep it light, almost frothy, while still hewing to the historical record. He sketches his story with quick, sure strokes: Victoria, finally wriggling free of her regent’s claws, learns to rule an empire, falls in love with her soul mate Prince Albert (Rupert Friend) and sets about revitalizing stuffy old England beyond the palace walls.

It’s a sweet natured, easy to follow story with no ambiguity about who’s wearing the white hats, history as hygienic, Top 40 entertainment. If this sounds dull and predictable, that’s because it is. But the heart doesn’t need creativity, just connection with real needs, and this is where the film succeeds (though perhaps not royally).

In actual fact, Victoria was a revolutionary leader with a tender heart. She took revenge on the ruthless system that had oppressed her by reforming it, making it care more about people and less about power. All this without spilling a drop of blood on the Persian carpeting, blue or otherwise.

Victoria, the queen, must have been a bit red in tooth and claw like every ruler but Victoria, the movie, gives us the night off from Machiavellian jousting. It does a nice job of tweaking the veil of hopeless about what passes for government these days, and that’s at least a place to start around the gyre again.