Hers is not the beauty of the manufactured ingenue.

No, Emily Blunt has a face that sticks. Her eyes are large, observant. Her wide mouth can deliver delight or snark. A cleft dimples her chin.

When the British actress arrived on the scene, it was atop a white horse in the 2004 indie "My Summer of Love." Heroine Mona was smitten with Blunt's bold, inscrutable Tamsin. As were audiences at the Toronto Film Festival, where the film premiered.

In a short five years, Blunt has gone from holding those reins to reigning over an empire as "The Young Victoria," directed by Jean-Marc Vallee.

At the start of the year, the 26-year-old appeared opposite Amy Adams in "Sunshine Cleaning," a dramedy about two sisters who begin a crime-scene-cleaning biz in New Mexico. Blunt's Nora is impulsive and terrifically irresponsible.

Last week, Blunt was nominated for a Golden Globe for her turn as a bearer of the weightiest sort of responsibilities, a nation's interests. (She already has one for her supporting role in the 2007 BBC miniseries, "Gideon's Daughter." That same year she was nominated for her turn in "The Devil Wears Prada.")

Victoria is her first starring role. "It was a little daunting," Blunt said by phone about her leap. I felt scared by the thought of it. But then, the experience of it was another thing altogether. It was wonderful and exhilarating. Jean-Marc created such an atmospheric set that moved so quickly, I didn't have time to realize I might have to be carrying a film."

In one of the film's fine moments, the recently crowned monarch lies in bed staring. She is replaying something her trusted adviser Lord Melbourne said to her regarding her cousin Prince Albert, who is gently courting her.

It is often the simple shots that are the most difficult to perform. Looking out into space, looking out at us, Blunt captures a variety of feelings: doubt, stubbornness, fondness. She reveals the young queen's mind. In her eyes is the near-imperceptible vibration of fear, but more possibility.

"She's a wonderful character at the end of the day, and I wanted to do her justice, rather than just the fact she reigned England," Blunt said. "I was very taken in by her, by the way she saw the world. I think she saw the world in quite a different light from the women of her time. The image of her was so dour. But when she was young, she was this kind of spitfire."

"The Young Victoria" is also an engaging love story. Rupert Friend plays Albert. The actor proves a terrific partner in this romance.

"You're only as good as your co-star," Blunt said modestly. But that cuts both ways. Friend blossoms in this role, to the point where we can't imagine Victoria (or the movie) without him.

Of course, that is the Queen Victoria most of us know: the one bereft of Albert, clad in black.

"We show why she grieved him so ferociously," Blunt said. "I think it literally burst an existential bubble of happiness she was in and she never recovered."

On Christmas Day, Blunt and fiancé John Krasinski ("The Office") had hers-and-his openings. (He's sweetly hysterical as Meryl Streep's son-in-law in "It's Complicated.") After "The Young Victoria" comes the horror redux "The Wolf Man," with Benicio Del Toro and Anthony Hopkins.

"I am quite an immediate person," she said. "I don't look for the next thing, the next thing and the next thing, because I find that overwhelming. But I don't stare at the ground, either. I'm very curious about the world. I'm very curious about where this job will take me."