The Young Victoria 2009

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: You don't have to be a royalist to be moved by beautifully staged coronation and wedding moments, and composer Ilan Eshkeri scores such scenes with music so thrilling you'll feel you've got a front-row seat to the real thing. Read more

Michael Phillips, At the Movies: I wonder: Was the director of The Young Victoria wearing a corset right alongside Emily Blunt? This is one tightly constricted period drama. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: An intimate, small-scale story of a young woman's struggle to be independent of her scheming relations and to find equality in a very unequal marriage. Read more

David Germain, Associated Press: The Young Victoria is good, old-fashioned period drama _ not terribly lively, not terribly insightful, but rich in pageantry and fine moments of drama, the whole show hinging on a beguiling performance from Blunt. Read more

Keith Phipps, AV Club: Director Jean-Marc Vallee bathes the frames in the details of its luxurious surroundings, and the screenplay, by Gosford Park writer Julian Fellowes, does a passable job of laying out all the factions jockeying for power around Blunt's Victoria. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: It's a muddled but plush experience overall, and if you're a royalist completist or a historical romantic, you'll probably have a decent time. As much as Blunt may have wanted the role, though, I'm not sure it suits her. Read more

Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: What filmmaker Jean-Marc Vallee has done in this delicious historical romance is capture that hot blush of pure emotion that comes before kisses, sex, heartbreak and the rest can dilute it. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: This may be the perfect shared entertainment for daughters just growing out of their princess phase and mothers with their own challenges balancing love and work. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: Blunt and Friend strike a few flinty sparks, and Julian Fellowes's script has its share of dry-as-dust witticisms. Most of the time, though, it's a stiff pageant. Read more

Christopher Kelly, Dallas Morning News: If The Young Victoria never transcends its fussy trappings -- it's still a familiar costume drama -- it remains brisk and intelligent. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: Director Jean-Marc Vallee's images have a creamy stateliness, but this is no gilded 
 princess fantasy -- it's the story of a budding ruler who learns to control her surroundings, and Blunt makes that journey at once authentic and relevant. Read more

Anthony Lane, New Yorker: Blunt strikes me as the real deal: languid but biting, like Jeanne Moreau, yet able to command a scene while somehow appearing to shift to one side (as Moreau would never do) and observe with a skeptic's smile. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: A biography that is quite enjoyable to watch, and a bit too easy to forget. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: I didn't quite believe that this tiny girl could become the most powerful woman in the history of the world, but at the time perhaps no one believed it. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: This is a lavish and lovingly detailed period piece that attempts to re-create England's last golden age, but the enchanting Ms. Blunt is the whole movie, and it wouldn't register even a small bleep on the Richter scale without her. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: Blunt, her eyes sparking, her manner playful, smart, and proud, shines in the title role. If the film itself isn't brilliant, its star most definitely is. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: The Young Victoria feels like a wasted opportunity and is among the least impressive in a long line of motion pictures about British royalty. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com: Watching the slow, cautious courtship between Victoria and Albert is so pleasurable, so surprisingly not-boring, that it doesn't matter how much of the ending we already know. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: If you like this sort of movie -- and actually, cards on the table, I like this kind of movie -- you will not be sorry you saw it. But you will not come away from the experience feeling that you've seen Victoria, young or otherwise. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: What emerges is a genuinely affecting love story, although it takes patience to negotiate the early intrigue. Read more

Mary F. Pols, TIME Magazine: Emily Blunt is utterly charming in this dramatization of the young Victoria's ascension to the throne and her courtship with Prince Albert. Read more

Ben Kenigsberg, Time Out: Read more

David Fear, Time Out: Vallee and his lead get high marks for kittenish revisionism. In all other respects, however, this movie is indistinguishable from every other throne-and-scepter biopic to hit the screen. Read more

Nina Caplan, Time Out: Dignified and charismatic, Blunt gives great lip-wobble, and Friend pulls off the role of sidekick, but historical twiddling can't render Victoria's love life interesting. Read more

Derek Elley, Variety: Well-groomed, upscale, three-hankie entertainment for the Masterpiece Theater crowd. Read more

Ella Taylor, Village Voice: Man, British heritage cinema can be dull when assembly-lined for the export market. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: The Young Victoria may impart copious amounts of detail about its fascinating protagonists, but it's not a mere tutorial: It's a heady, thoroughly transporting plunge. Read more