The Young Victoria (PG, 2009)

Queen Victoria (Emily Blunt) is often best remembered as a long-time ruler bedecked in black, forever grieving her beloved husband, Prince Albert (Rupert Friend), who died decades before she did. Before all of that, however, she was an overprotected young girl -- she wasn’t even allowed to walk up and down stairs on her own -- fending off her mother’s (Miranda Richardson) efforts to establish regency and share her reign. THE YOUNG VICTORIA recounts the legendary monarch's rise to power and, once there, how she grew to embrace her position -- both alone and with kind, idealistic Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg by her side.

Fascinating? Sure. For starters, we’ve never seen Queen Victoria quite like this before: a flirty coquette deeply determined to learn how to rule and years away from mourning. And the circumstances behind her ascendance to the throne are intriguing. Blunt’s performance is steeped in wit and whimsy, saving it from the stuffiness that sometimes grips dramas about historical figures. (Though only just: Some moments play like British History 101, stringing important royal milestones together to speed the story along.)

But as intriguing as its subject may be, The Young Victoria really ought to be re-titled The Young Victoria and Albert. Though the movie delves into politics, it’s really more of a sweet romance chronicling how the two met and fell madly in love. The times may have been Victorian, but the marriage was quite modern: Victoria and Albert worked in tandem and strove to bring out the best in each other. It’s wonderful to witness, but in the end, the audience is left with the feeling of having watched two different movies: a historical drama in the first half, a youthful romance in the other. Instructive as the former may be (despite moments that suffer from slack pacing), the latter is far more bewitching.