THE YOUNG VICTORIA

Academy award winner - Costume design

 Emily Blunt is such a wily and playful actress that in Young Victoria, she makes her twinkly ivory radiance fit the role. Her beauty comes off not as the usual period eye candy but as an expression of Victoria's inner grace. Victoria's problem is deciding which colleague to trust: the unctuously affable Lord Melbourne (Paul Bettany), who exploits her insecurities, or her cousin Prince Albert (Rupert Friend), whom she falls in love with, but who's essentially working as an undercover agent for his uncle, the king of Belgium. At first, Victoria trusts too much; then, she trusts too little. She's trying to figure out how much manipulation is just right. Director Jean-Marc Vallée (C.R.A.Z.Y.)'s images have a creamy stateliness, but this is no princess fantasy — it's the story of a budding ruler who learns to control her surroundings, and Blunt makes that journey authentic and relevant. Victoria, a leader who changed the world, becomes any young woman brave enough to seize her moment. --Entertainment Weekly