The Savoy Theater

THE SAVOY THEATER
26 Main Street
Montpelier, VT 05602

  • Recording:
    802-229-0509
  • VT toll-free recording:
    800-676-0509
  • Savoy office:
    802-229-0598
  • Downstairs Video:
    802-223-0050
  • VT toll-free DV phone:
    800-898-0050
  • Email:
    film@savoytheater.com

 

Coming Soon

The Young Victoria

Starts Friday, March 12

 

  • Matthew Turner, ViewLondon,


    • Directed by Jean-Marc Vallee from a script by Julian Fellowes, THE YOUNG VICTORIA stars Emily Blunt as, well, the young Queen Victoria. After a few brief scenes with Victoria as a young girl (Michaela Brooks), the story properly begins with Victoria as a teenager (Blunt), whose easily-led mother (Miranda Richardson) is conspiring with her scheming husband (Mark Strong as Sir John Conroy) to prevent Victoria from becoming Queen on the grounds that she's too young.

      However, the favouritism of King William (Jim Broadbent), coupled with her strong relationship with the Prime Minister (Paul Bettany as Lord Melbourne) ensures that Victoria's path to the throne proceeds according to plan. Meanwhile, Victoria is pressured to take a husband and finds herself falling for her cousin Albert (Rupert Friend), despite the objections of those around her.

      Emily Blunt effortlessly anchors the film with a wonderful performance that's delightful to watch; she also has terrific chemistry with Rupert Friend, who gives an equally assured performance that shows why he's fast becoming one of Britain's best young actors. There's also splendid work from a to-die-for supporting cast that includes Paul Bettany, Jim Broadbent, Miranda Richardson and Mark Strong.

      Fellowes' script is extremely good, detailing the tension of the political wrangling that surrounds Victoria, while also presenting an emotionally engaging love story and offering intriguing glimpses of the world outside the Palace gates. That said, he's not above a little tweak for dramatic effect – the film's most dramatic moment (involving Albert and an assassin's bullet) didn't happen quite the way it's portrayed on screen.

      In short, THE YOUNG VICTORIA is a highly enjoyable historical drama that deserves to be a huge hit, thanks to an engaging script and superb performances from Blunt and Friend. Highly recommended.

      Rated PG; 104 minutes.

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    Broken Embraces

    Coming Soon

     

    • Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times,


      • Pedro Almodovar loves the movies with lust and abandon and the skill of an experienced lover. "Broken Embraces" is a voluptuary of a film, drunk on primary colors, caressing Penelope Cruz, using the devices of a Hitchcock to distract us with surfaces while the sinister uncoils beneath. As it ravished me, I longed for a freeze frame to allow me to savor a shot.

        The movie confesses its obsession upfront. It is about seeing. A blind man asks a woman to describe herself. Since we can see her perfectly well, one purpose of this scene is to allow us to listen to her. How to describe the body, the hair, the eyes? Movies are really about the human body more than anything else. Read more..

      • Rated R; 128 minutes.

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      A Single Man

      Coming Soon

       

      • Peter Travers, Rolling Stone,


        • A sorrowful beauty infuses every frame of this remarkable debut feature from fashion designer Tom Ford. Loosely based on the novel by Christopher Isherwood, A Single Man visits a single day in the life of gay Brit expat George Falconer (Colin Firth), a teacher at a Los Angeles college who plans on suicide to end his pain over the death of his lover, Jim (Matthew Goode). The film is stunningly visualized, with Ford achieving a feeling for light and texture to rival Wong Kar-wai's.

        • Life with Jim is seen in black-and-white flashbacks that contrast vividly with the rich color palette of his present encounters, notably with Kenny, beautifully played by Nicholas Hoult (About a Boy), a student whose interests exceed the academic, and his British friend Charley (Julianne Moore), a divorcee who fantasizes that George will marry her. Moore is explosively good, especially in her drunk scene. But the film belongs to Firth. Uncanny at showing the heart crumbling under George's elegant exterior, he gives the performance of his career. Ford is a true visionary, but it's his humanity that gives the love story a ravishing, bruised grandeur.

          Rated R; 99 minutes.

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