The Young Victoria

Seen at: Lyric Cinema Cafe at 6:45 p.m. on Jan. 8

Does a movie about Queen Victoria work so well now because women of today feel a kinship to the problems of a British Monarch in 1838?

Is Victoria the prototype of the Postmodern woman?

Are middle class American and British girls today raised pretty much as princesses were, in the early Nineteenth Century?

This film defines the tension better than it solves it. That is, we understand the heroine must navigate the Crown on her own, ultimately. But at the time time she must reach out for help, and be vulnerable. That's the dilemma. But what to say about it?

How did Victoria solve it in such as way that can be recognizable to the woman of 2010 as she struggles in her own life?

Is a powerful woman who reaches out for help still a full woman?

Is a man still a man if the woman has to propose marriage to him?

How strange these questions seem to the classical ear, yet they are perfectly normal to us today.

Times change.

Best period piece: The Young Victoria
Best performance as a queen: Emily Blunt