The Young Victoria

There seems to be genetically mandated need to make one of these “History of England” costume dramas about once a year. Sometimes it’s “History of France,” but it’s still the same movie. If we’re lucky there will be some decent acting and a reasonably accurate historical script, and this is a good one. (Though Prince Albert did not get hit when a madman shot at Victoria.) It’s all a matter of if you like this sort of thing. About once a year is enough of them for me, so that works out well, doesn’t it? I really do think they are made to show off the work of the costume designer and nail down the Oscar next year. This one worked: Sandy Powell won. We went to the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising downtown to see their yearly show of costumes from about 20 films. These were some of the best, though I was more entranced by the foot-high costumes for the little dolls in the stop-motion animated film Coraline.