Young Victoria, The

image for Young Victoria, The

Short takes

Not recommended under 13 (Lacks interest)

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This topic contains:

  • overall comments and recommendations
  • details of classification and consumer advice lines for Young Victoria, The
  • a review of Young Victoria, The completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 8 September 2009.

Overall comments and recommendations

Children under 13 This movie has adult themes and most children of this age would be bored.
Children over the age of 13 OK for children in this age group

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines. Other classification advice (OC) is provided where the Australian film classification is not available.

Name of movie: Young Victoria, The
Classification: PG
Consumer advice lines: Infrequent mild violence
Length: 105 minutes

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

A synopsis of the story

Queen Victoria (Emily Blunt) is 11years old when she realises that she is next in line to the throne of England, with her mother the Duchess of Kent (Miranda Richardson) to be Regent if the existing king, King William (Jim Broadbent) dies before Victoria comes of age. In the meantime, others try to position themselves to get control, including Sir John Conroy (Mark Strong) who has a great deal of influence over the Duchess of Kent, and the Duchess of Kent’s brother King Leopold of Belgium.

King Leopold sends his nephew Prince Albert (Rupert Friend) to England to ‘woo’ the queen and hence create a strong link between the two families. Victoria and Albert fall in love, but the courtship is not straightforward as Lord Melbourne (Paul Bettany) initially has an enormous amount of influence over Victoria. It is only after some real political problems and the supportive and good advice from Prince Albert that Victoria realises just how important he is to her and they are married.

Themesinfo

Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.

None of concern

Use of violenceinfo

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

There is some violence in this movie including:

  • Sir John Conroy argues with Victoria and then pushes her violently onto the couch
  • an assassin attempts to kill Victoria and Albert gets in front of her. Albert is hurt and carried into the palace, bleeding.

Material that may scare or disturb children

Under fiveinfo

Children under five are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as monsters, physical transformations.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scene, children under the age of five could be concerned by a scene in which Victoria is sick and Sir John is trying to force her to sign over the regency to her mother. Victoria refuses, and Sir John shouts at her and shakes her.

Aged five to eightinfo

Children aged five to eight will also be frightened by scary visual images and will also be disturbed by depictions of the death of a parent, a child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

Children in this age group may also be disturbed by the above-mentioned scenes.

Aged eight to thirteeninfo

Children aged eight to thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic threats and dangers, violence or threat of violence and / or stories in which children are hurt or threatened.

It is unlikely that children over the age of eight would be disturbed by anything in this movie.

Thirteen and overinfo

Children over the age of thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic physical harm or threats, molestation or sexual assault and / or threats from aliens or the occult.

None

Product placement

None

Sexual references

There are some sexual references in this movie, including:

  • When Prince Albert found that they only had three days for a ‘honeymoon’ he stopped dressing Victoria and started undressing her (only her stockings) as he said they didn’t have much time.

Nudity and sexual activity

There is some nudity and sexual activity in this movie, including:

  • After their marriage ceremony, Victoria and Albert are in bed together for the first time, they kiss passionately and then the next day, when they wake up Victoria says that she now feels ‘quite married’

Use of substances

There is some use of substances in this movie, including:

  • wine is served at all the big dinners
  • King William is very drunk at one point and insults the Duchess of Kent.

Coarse language

None

In a nutshell

The Young Victoria is a period drama which describes the life of Queen Victoria before she became Queen and up until the birth of her first child. It highlights the difficulties faced by a young woman expected to inherit the throne of England. Victoria shows strength, determination and a great deal of courage in her desire to stand up for herself and her beliefs against others who try to manipulate and use her.

Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include the importance of:

  • listening to good advice
  • being honest and true to yourself
  • helping others less fortunate than yourself
  • sincere relationships.

This movie could also give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children the difference between stubbornness and strength, and the disastrous results that can occur if the two are confused.