Like cheese and chalk, Jean-Marc Vallee (director) and Julian Fellowes (screenwriter), together managed an excellent portrayal of the early life of Victoria and Albert. Keeping the personal dynamics of devotion and love at the story's core, they develop what could otherwise have been a stale head-chamber piece into a lovely unfolding heart-drama. Surprising for the genre, they also manage to capture a beautiful intimacy, a friendship and romantic passion of the two key protagonists, without resorting to crass voyeurism and explicit sexual content. Hence, its "G" rating in Canada, PG, I believe for the U.S.

The cinematography of Hagen Bogdanski, who I first noticed in the Oscar award winning German production, The Lives of Others (2007), is clever and innovative without being obtrusive. My only regret is that the end seemed truncated. A long real-time sequence would have been a tad more satisfactory than the compressed time vignettes alluding to Albert's early death and Victoria's 60-year sorrow as the famous dowager widow which followed.

Did they go over budget, or encounter other creative restrains, I wonder?