Review: The Young Victoria

I've heard quite a bit about The Young Victoria around the blogging world. I kind of wanted to see it, but never bought the DVD or seen it on TV. When I came home one day, I saw that it was on one of the movie channels. I missed the first couple of minutes of it, but I got to see the rest of it.

DVD Box Art

Synopsis

The Young Victoria follows the life of Princess Victoria, who eventually becomes Queen Victoria, and how she met Prince Albert and fell in love with him. She became queen at age 18 and was seen by many as inexperienced and not ready for the job.


Characters
There are a couple of actors/actresses that you may recognize in The Young Victoria. Emily Blunt has recently come into the limelight, but also there is Rupert Friend (Pride and Prejudice 2005) as Prince Albert, Mark Strong (Emma 1997) was Sir John Conroy, Harriet Walter (Sense and Sensibility 1995, Little Dorrit 2008) was Queen Adelaide, and Morven Christie (Lost in Austen) was the servant Watson. The screenplay was written by Julian Fellowes, who also created Downton Abbey.

Overall, I thought the cast did a very good job. Emily Blunt I thought was a good Queen Victoria. I don't know very much about Victoria's life, but I found her likable in this movie. A little rebellious, but likable. I found that Emily Blunt acted well in her role, though there were a couple of spots where I thought she acted a little silly as a queen and for the time period, but overall she did a good job. I also enjoyed Rupert Friend's Price Albert, though I was a little skeptical of his German accent (something about it didn't seem perfectly right, but not bad).

I did have a hard time with remembering all the members of the royal family, but that could be due to my missing the first couple of minutes of the movie. When I rewatch this movie, I may have to pay closer attention to the characters with titles.


Scenery
A feast for the eyes! Between the gorgeous houses and the outdoor scenery, there cannot be want of pretty scenes. The colors are very lively and bright.


Costuming

Wow... This must be some of the best costuming I've seen. The dresses are very lively and bright (except for the mourning dresses, of course). There were a number of lovely dresses that Victoria wore. And the bonnets! A number of them had sheer fabric on them, which made them interesting. The dresses were from the 1830s and a little into the 1840s.


Overall: 4/5
Overall, I liked it. There were a couple of scenes that you may want to skip after Victoria and Albert get married (two or three scenes, but they are very close together), but other than that, I don't believe there was anything bad in there. There were two assassination attempts made on Queen Victoria, one which no one was hurt (though many were shocked) and the second where someone was injured, but nothing is shown. I think I would watch this again to pick up on some of the smaller details, though I've read that there are some historical inaccuracies, but that's not unusual for biopics.

The Young Victoria is available on DVD and Blu-Ray. It is rated PG and runs for 105 minutes.

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert

Review: Little Women (1994)

Little Women was one of those movies that I kind of wanted to watch, but didn't really want to buy the DVD. Luckily, it was on TV one day, solving my problem. I really didn't know much about the story of Little Women and had never read the book. So I was watching Little Women with very little knowledge of the story.

Box Art

Synopsis
Little Women revolves around the lives of four sisters, Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy March, and their mother, Mrs. March. Mr. March, Mrs. March's husband and Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy's father, is off fighting in the Civil War. Jo March, the main protagonist, becomes quick friends with Theodore "Laurie" Laurence who falls in love with her.


Characters
There are some members of the cast that are famous, though I really don't know many of them from period dramas. These actors/actresses include Winona Ryder (Jo March), Susan Sarandon (Mrs. March), Kirsten Dunst (young Amy March), and Christian Bale (Laurie).

Left to Right: Amy March, Jo March, Beth March, and Meg March

The March sisters were okay. Jo I had to get used to a little bit, but I grew to like her. Beth was sympathetic especially after she caught scarlet fever. Meg seemed alright, but I wanted to see more of her on the screen: I feel like I didn't get her whole character very much. But honestly, I did not like Amy March. I think it was because I only really saw her during the first half of the movie where she was young and selfish. She was there on screen a little bit as an adult, but I don't think that she was there enough for my opinion of her to improve.

There was something unsatisfactory about the ending. I didn't think that Laurie should have ended up with Amy. I also thought that Professor Bhear looked too old for Jo. I've heard that people wish that Laurie and Jo had gotten married, and I think I have to agree with them. I didn't hate Professor Bhear, but I still thought that he was too old for Jo. Plus, Laurie seemed to change after he went to France: suddenly, I couldn't trust his character very much. Oh well...


Scenery
There were some very nice colors used for the scenery. The part that sticks out in my mind was when Jo was in the forest picking flowers: everything looked so green and fresh! But in short, the scenery was very colorful and pleasant to look at.


Costuming

Jo and Professor Bhear

The story takes place in the 1860's (and maybe very early 1870's?). There is a wide range of costumes. The Marches, due to their poverty, have poor clothes and, for the most part, go without the crinoline most of the time. Jo does wear a crinoline and fashionable clothing for a coming-out party, but hated it, so that was the end of that. I say maybe 1870s because when Amy was in France, she was wearing a bustle, which didn't come into fashion until about 1869 and stayed in fashion until 1875. You also get to see what mourning fashion was like during the 1860s. Whatever the fashion used, everything looked very nice.


Overall: 3/5
I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it either. I liked it... kind of... I guess it was okay. I probably wouldn't watch it again on my own, but if someone wanted to see it, I wouldn't object to watching it again. There is a bit of nice scenery and the costumes are nice to look at. The plot and characters were just okay, though: not really in my top favorite plots and characters, but not in my bottom either.

Little Women is available on DVD. It is rated PG for two uses of mild language and runs for 115 minutes.

Review: Fiddler on the Roof (1971)

"A fiddler on the roof. Sounds crazy, no?" This must be one of my favorite musicals. I happened to see it on PBS one evening, and since I haven't seen it in a long time, I watched it.



I also want to apologize for the long wait for this review. It should have been posted yesterday, but I didn't get around to posting it until today.

Box Art

Synopsis
Fiddler on the Roof focuses on the life of Tevye (Topol), a poor Jewish milkman with five daughters living in Anatevka, a village in Russia, during the early 1900s. In Anatevka, everyone has traditions that they keep, but as the story goes on, those traditions eventually are broken.


Characters
There really isn't anyone in here that I recognize from other period dramas (or other movies in general).

The cast did a very good job of acting. Topol is Tevye. Period. He seemed to fit the character perfectly (though, I must confess, that this is the only version of Fiddler on the Roof that I've seen, but he just seemed to fit with the character). I couldn't think of anyone else as Tevye. He also has a very nice singing voice and is a good actor. Another honorable mention is Norma Crane: she did a wonderful job as Tevye's wife, Golde. 

There are a great deal of quotable lines. I'm going to take the opportunity of listing a couple of them now:

The Sabbath Prayer

Lebisch: Is there a proper blessing - for the tsar?
Rabbi: A Blessing for the tsar? 'Course! May God bless and keep the tsar... *whispered* far away from us!

"Traditions, traditions. Without our traditions, our lives would be as shaky as... as... as a fiddler on the roof!" ~Tevye

My favorite part of the story has to be the first half of it. During the first half, the tone is much happier: you get a glimpse into the everyday lives of the people of Anatevka. However, the second half gets much more serious and the music gets sadder. Spoiler This movie does have a bit of a sad ending since everyone in Anatevka is evicted and has to scatter to different parts of the world, so if you don't like sad endings, watch out. I personally don't like sad endings, but I still liked this movie. End of Spoiler

Scenery
For a movie made in the 70s, the scenery is very nice. There are very nice colors in the first half of the movie, but in the second half, the colors are not as colorful (since the story gets more serious and takes place in winter).


Costuming

Tevye's eldest daughter, Tzeitel, at her wedding

There's really not too much to say about the costuming. All (if not all, then most) of the characters are poor, so you don't get to see many pretty dresses (except a wedding dress, but it's fairly plain one). The costuming is fitting to the characters, though, so I don't really have much to complain about the costuming.


Music
How could one review a musical and not comment on the music? The music is marvelous! There are many catchy songs (my favorite has to be the opening song "Tradition"). The first half of the movie has more upbeat songs while the second half of the movie has slower, sadder songs due to the change in tone of the story. There are also a couple of dance numbers that are memorable.


Overall: 4.5/5
Definitely a good movie to watch. The songs are very good and there are some memorable dancing sequences. It also give you a look into traditional Jewish life. There may be one frightening sequence, but it was only a dream (and not a real dream) and doesn't get graphic. For the most part, this would be appropriate for anyone of all ages.

Fiddler on the Roof is available on DVD. It is rated G and runs for 181 minutes