Although the era of Queen Victoria is usually identified with sexual repression, The Young Victoria biopic focuses on her days as a swinger of sorts who gave birth to nine children after marrying Prince Albert of Belgium (played by Rupert Friend). Chronologically, the film begins in 1836, when Victoria (played by Emily Blunt) is seventeen, meets the Prince, and is being pressured by her mother (played by Miranda Richardson) and Sir John Conroy (played by Mark Strong) to sign a declaration of regency that would allow the latter the power to act as sovereign until her twenty-fifth birthday. While the pressure is crude and formal, she finds Albert well mannered and informal. After their short meeting, he returns to Belgium, writes love letters, and the two marry in 1840. But she has to navigate those who are trying to control her, including briefly Albert himself, in order to assert her royal powers, as she was crowed Queen Victoria in 1837 after a childhood in which she was deliberately kept unprepared to reign. That navigation is the best part of the film, which is directed by Jean-Marc Vallée and has been nominated by the Political Film Society as best exposé of 2009. MH