This story begins in the 18th century with the Duchess of Devonshire called Georgina after a bustling life filled with a set of traditions, social norms and the world of protocols. The girl may pay for it after she has entered into a failed marriage and must confront these personal conflicts from her disastrous life with her husband's mistress and the love of a young political man. She is a girl who may rise to fame, money and power but will pay for it to no avail.
At its simplest, it's a gorgeous film with beautiful period costumes and intricate set designs. However, something tells me that's not the level director Saul Dibb wanted to achieve greatest on.
Keira wears a series of gorgeous frocks and runs through her full repertoire of smirks and simpers... But if you can look past the dresses and the sullen lips, then you have to admit that [she] delivers another solid performance.
Everything you'd expect it to be: a well-acted British period piece with lavish attention to period detail, about discontented characters in a royal family. And that's about it.
Fiennes, an actor who disappears into roles like ice in a teacup, makes the Duke a complex and almost sympathetic figure, a bulky, unappealing man whose interests are in all the wrong things.
7M Pictures
March 05, 2009
a refreshing look at British royalty, and it will curb your want to be part of that era, age and societal level
It's disturbingly shallow, focused so tightly on one woman's feelings of repression and loneliness that it lacks any perspective on their causes.
Arizona Republic
October 09, 2008
The Duchess is clearly Knightley's movie, ultimately rising or falling on her performance. She's up to the task, capturing both the charm and grace that made Georgiana so captivating.
