The Duchess (2008)

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

I thoroughly enjoyed this period drama. Keira Knightley's performance is brilliant, the costumes (her extreme hair) and sets are gorgeous, the true (ish) story involving and Ralph Fiennes is perfect as Georgina's callus, indifferent husband.This really is Keira Knightley's movie though and she does a fantastic job capturing the charm, intrigue, frustration and (often) scandalous exploits of Georgina Spencer, the duchess of Devonshire in 18th century England."G" was the original "it girl" with uncanny parallels to her direct descendant Princess Diana. She was glamorous, popular and adored by an entire country but also haunted by the fact that the only man in England she could not seduce was her very own husband, the Duke. When she tried to find her own way the resulting controversies and liaisons left all of London talking.I especially liked the multilayered take we get from all the characters here. Ralph Fiennes wasn't just the "evil husband", he was a man of his times, giving a complex and sympathetic edge to his character.I wasn't overly impressed with Dominic Cooper as Charles Grey, a flat forgettable sort, for such a heart wrenching love affair. I did like the introduction of Bess Foster as the other woman or other wife as the case may be and definitely felt G's frustration as her husband continued his adulterous liaison right in front of her while at the same time refusing to allow her to have her own, threatening to take the children.What an involving soap opera-ish storyline with the servants standing and listening in to all the arguments and scandal, forgotten by the players like they aren't even there. 10/12/15

I have just finished seeing this film on TV. I come a lot to this site to read reviews but just a few i wrote. But sometimes you feel compelled. And although i see this film has a reasonable rating i really found it more worth that that. First of all, the director, i never heard of Saul Dibb. I see he has not much on his record when i searched him here. But my God what a well made, constantly enternaining drama. I liked almost everything about it. Especially the performance from Keira Knightley. A very powerful one that still leaves me speechless for now. Only thing that i would of liked to see a bit more where Ralp Fiennes personal dissisions he hade to make in this film..Update: I must engage you to really see this one. Have to add in my update that it just moved me deeply, made my shed a tear, but also mad ma angry at times. And isn't that what a brilliant film is all about. Again, all the compliments to Keira Knightley. I hope she gets these messages through somewere because she is so more talented then i thought when wactching Pitates of the Carabian, a real enlightment to watch. Enjoy . If you like films like the fast and the furious though i think this isn't for you.

I'm of two minds about this film. On the one hand, Saul Dibb has managed to turn a book into an entertaining film about the trials and tribulation - and, let's keep things in perspective, extremely privileged life - of the frolicking Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire (Keira Knightley). It hits all the targets of the romantic genre, and does so with a nice mix of emotional scenes, witty banter, and even some interesting discussions.Some, because on the other hand the film fails to step beyond the confines of its genre and to really engage with the historical period in which the events take place. The female protagonist gets married to a Duke (Ralph Fiennes), is supposedly unhappy (but wastes little time exploiting the new social options presented to her because of said marriage), and soon the viewer is on board with Georgiana for a ride through all the familiar scenes: her husband's mistresses, her own dalliances with young dreamers, an unexpected pregnancy, etc. etc. The political scheming in the background is mentioned, but there is very little interaction between the events of the story and the historical context. In the final minutes of the film, lines of text assure the viewer that Georgiana was one of the most influential women of her day (in England, one assumes). Unfortunately, not much of that supposed influence is shown in the film, where Georgiana has to make do with a short scene in which she rallies a crowd of a few dozen spectators at a political campaign event.It's all the more unfortunate that this angle of Georgiana's character was left underexposed, because in the first few minutes of the film she quickly finds herself in a rather witty back-and-forth with one of her husband's political allies, Charles Fox (Simon McBurney). Those scenes, so teasingly shown in the trailer, are sadly moved to the sidelines soon after. If those reading this felt similarly disappointed by this, I can recommend Patrice Leconte's 1996 film Ridicule. It's an excellent and very witty look at the French court in roughly the same time.So all in all, if you're looking at this film as a romantic historical drama, it's actually not all that bad. But unfortunately it's also not much more than that. A shame, especially because this is an era in which there should be no shortage of great characters from which to draw inspiration for far more interesting stories and films.A final note on the acting: Ralph Fiennes is great as William Cavendish, Duke of Devonshire, as is Simon McBurney as the politician Charles Fox. Dominic Cooper and Hayley Atwell gave two decent but unexciting (which isn't necessarily bad) performances as Charles Grey and Bess Foster respectively. As for Georgiana herself? I can understand directors are reluctant to use different actors for the same role, but wanting a 22 year old Keira Knightley to portray both a 17 year old newly-wed and a 35 year old mother was perhaps a bit too much to ask. Knightley makes the most of it, and some scenes are well done indeed, but on the whole it wasn't really working out for me.Recommended for easy romantic watching, not so for an engaging historical drama.

I cannot say that this was a great movie, but it was a quite interesting portrait of a woman, especially as the Duchess has existed in reality. I liked that they tried to put the personal drama a little bit into the context of national affairs, political parties and so on at the time. I want to LEARN something as well, when I watch a period drama! It is also a good costume drama with many elaborate and beautiful dresses etc..As a love story it is nothing special - the Duchess seems too cold... But my heart bled for her when she had to part with her baby. That is all mothers' worst horror. Although the Duchess at least got to visit her child and know that it was well cared for, which was more than most women have got, throughout all time, in the same circumstances.I would not pay to see this movie, but I can recommend it for women to watch in the company of an old mother or grown-up daughter, in front of the television on a rainy afternoon.