Diggin' the Dancing Queen

I don't generally use this space for movie reviews, but seriously, run--don't walk--to the Redbox and check out The Young Victoria. The costumes are to-die-for and the story is engaging, but what really got me was (spoiler!) how this film portrayed Queen Victoria's courtship and eventual marriage to Prince Albert.

I love that the movie didn't make Queen Victoria a total 21st-century feminist icon. We get to see the queen's vulnerability--her desire to do good versus her inexperience. And I really love that the movie didn't reduce Prince Albert to a simpering yes-man. So many movies portray men as weak comic foils, or as raging tyrants, but this rendering of Prince Albert was...dreamy--for this girl, anyway. He respected his wife's role, but he was sure of his own role as husband and father. Part of the couple's journey was figuring out how to balance authority and leadership in the palace and in their relationship. I'm so thankful the film-makers didn't shy away from these issues and didn't try to mold the characters into our culture (like all those folks who keep trying to liberate poor Jane Austen).

All too often, characters in books and movies fall into archetypes: the cold-as-ice woman who demands perfection, the blundering father who can't do anything right, the trophy wife, the "Cat's in the Cradle" workaholic. Entertaining they may be, but very rarely do we connect with them. In this film, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert were far more nuanced and I found myself relating to the queen until I had tears in my eyes.