"The Young Victoria"

This week I went on a "girl date" with my friend Rachel. We went out to dinner, saw The Young Victoria, with plenty of treats, and got frozen yogurt after. Though we both felt a little naked at first without our kids or diaper bags, it was so much fun! I cannot remember the last time I went to a movie with a girlfriend. It was great. Thanks to Johann for watching the kiddos so we could have a night out. We're hoping to make this a monthly tradition.

I really enjoyed the film. In the beginning they throw a lot of names and their relation to Victoria out but if you just wait it out for a bit you catch on to whose who after not too long. In addition to enjoying the beautiful sets, costuming, acting, etc I really appreciated what I suppose could be called the "moral of the story," namely: a marriage that accomplishes anything is about sharing in each others successes and roles, and working side by side. It was kind of like a "girlie" Howard Zinn spin on history, using historical happenings to inform the public in current issues. The film shows how Victoria gave up some of her traditions, childhood comforts, and I think most importantly, her pride to make it possible for her husband to feel apart of her life. There are a lot of interesting points to note about gender roles, especially because of the 'role switch' of the wife being the one with a high power position, but I won't bore anyone with that! =)

Something Rachel and I were both wondering about after the film is what is it that seems so inherent in us that when we watch a dancing scene from these films, see them sitting around sipping tea and eating biscuts, or at the opera we think, "ah, I wish." Is it just the romanticizing of the past, the trapping of films, or is it something more in us that sees something lovely and desires it? Is it that tap on the chain of past life that ripples all the way to our little piece of life welded on that chain? Did those people of the past hit on something that appealed to what we knew was really how we should or will be? Is there anything eternal in the waltz?*
Well, I think it goes without saying that I recoommend the film; the sequencing is a little rushed and thin at times, but everything else compensates. Its an enjoyable hour and forty-five minutes if nothing else.



*see Elder Callister's devotional "Your Refined Heavenly Home." September 19th, 2006:
"Today I would like to peek behind the veil that temporarily separates us from our heavenly home and paint a word picture of the virtuous, lovely, and refined circumstances that exist there. I will speak of the language, literature, music, and art of heaven, as well as the immaculate appearance of heavenly beings, for I believe that in heaven we will find each of these in pure and perfected form."