The Word On... The Young Victoria

"The film is exquisitely beautiful: at times the characters look like mahogany in candlelight, like the wooden pawn Victoria fears she is becoming. Britain's in situ castles and palaces cannot fail to host perfect settings for the royal screamings and weepings that are largely over nothing. What the film lacks is a sense of its awful era – if only Dickens could have had a hand in the script." - Vincent Olliver, www.teletext.co.uk

"Emily Blunt brings a likeable everygirl quality to the central role, although her manner is anachronistically modern at times. Unlike, say, Keira Knightley, she doesn't seem born to appear in period dramas." - Anna Smith, channel4.com/film

"'Young Victoria' doesn't particularly deviate from the biographical film formula, but with an outstanding lead performance and a refined script it stands proud with the best of them... 'Young Victoria' creates a world of rich detail inhabited by a woman clashing against social constraints and expectations. It's pure escapism and unashamedly romantic." - Simon Reynolds, www.digitalspy.co.uk

"Like Cate Blanchett's 'Elizabeth', it's a solid, workmanlike effort that shifts the emphasis away from the haughty stereotype and casts Victoria in a new light." - Tim Evans, movies.sky.com