The Young Victoria

This sumptuous, well-cast and well-appointed period drama tells the story of the courtship between Queen Victoria (a beautifully measured Emily Blunt) and Prince Albert (Rupert Friend).

Though Victoria looks set to inherit the throne at any moment, her scheming mother (Miranda Richardson) and even more fiendish advisor (Mark Strong) have devised a plot to make the young princess sign her powers away to her mother.

Meanwhile, over in Belgium, King Leopold (Thomas Kretschmann) has come up with a plan to enable a marriage of political clout by convincing his nephew, Albert, to woo Victoria. In preparation, Albert is coached in the princess's tastes, but when the two finally meet, it's only once he abandons the fawning that she falls for him. Over time and distance, and encouraged by Lord Melbourne (Paul Bettany), the pair continue to court and in 1840, with Victoria already on the throne, they eventually marry.

It's a lovely, lingering kind of film, and for all its busy courts, plush furnishings and delicate matters of etiquette, it's really just a simple tale of two young people falling in love. ·