Keira Knightley, Ralph Fiennes, Charlotte Rampling

A chronicle of the life of 18th century aristocrat Georgiana, duchess of Devonshire, an ancestor of Princess Diana who was alternately celebrated and reviled for her extravagant political and personal...( read more  read more... ) lives.

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70% liked it

59,365 ratings

Critics

61% liked it

158 critics

PG-13, 1 hr. 45 min.

Directed by: Saul Dibb

Release Date: September 5, 2008

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DVD Release Date: January 27, 2009

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Stats: 4,516 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (4,516)


  • June 27, 2009
    Her actual biography was what gripped me more than the script. The costumes were the second best thing about the movie.
  • June 14, 2009
    The Duchess is a beautifully costumed period piece. (The hats worn by female cast are 'to die for'!) The acting is average. The cinematography has some moments but nothing to earn raves. Rather than capturing the true extravagance and notoriety of the real Duchess of Devonshir...( read more)e, the film gives glimpses of the life she lived. The interaction between the Duchess and her children is the best performance by Knightley in The Duchess. Overall the film lacks the power punch and emotional impact of what a period piece should deliver.
  • April 20, 2009
    I thought Keira Knightley was wonderful in the film. The outfits were beautiful as well. It's a pretty sad story about Georgiana who becomes the duchess of Devonshire and has to put up with a lot of crap from her husband and his ways. Poor women, back in those days. Througout the...( read more) film, she tries to leave him, but somehow ends up back with him.
  • April 14, 2009
    "You can't ask me to battle nature in my own heart."

    The Duchess dramatizes a portion of the true story of a headstrong young aristocrat whose surname is Spencer. The lady, played by Keira Knightley with full awareness of the charms of a demure head tilt, is famous...( read more) for her glamorous beauty, her influential fashion sense, and her celebrity friends; the gentleman, played by Ralph Fiennes with exquisite nuance in a compassionate depiction of male inexpressiveness, is rich, powerful, and from a renowned British family. The lady is more adored by those around her than by her husband, a socially awkward older man more at ease with pets than with people; the gentleman remains attached, throughout most of the couple's long, incompatible marriage, to another, more worldly woman (Hayley Atwell), ignoring his wife's distress about the ménage.

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    If the name of Diana Spencer, the late Princess of Wales, comes to mind, then the makers of The Duchess can rest easy. They've made a delightfully gossipy, dutifully swanky costume biopic, but more importantly, they've accomplished their goal of making the unorthodox life of the 18th-century noblewoman Georgiana Spencer, Duchess of Devonshire, relevant to a 21st-century audience of filmgoers who cheer for romance even while armed with skepticism and copies of magazines reminding them how so many "fairy-tale marriages" go bust. The film is based on Amanda Foreman's marvellous biography "Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire."

    As it happens, Georgiana Spencer - Diana's great-great-great-great-aunt - married William Cavendish, the fifth Duke of Devonshire, in 1774 when she was 17 and he was 26. It was an era of impossibly tall wigs and tight corsets - and the women didn't have it easy either. But with Knightley in the title role, something interesting happens: the 23-year-old, Middlesex-born's sporty, modern-girl attitude, her Vogue-worthy eyebrows, and her athletic build (no matter how impressively those long limbs are encased in complicated gowns of satin and silk) lend an attitude of now-ness to a production that wants to be part historical biopic, part tabloid-relevant. The director, Saul Dibb, has a background in documentary filmmaking, and that shows in every frame of this film.

    Knightley is not a very deep interpreter of her roles (whether in Atonement or Pride & Prejudice, arguably the best work she's done so far), nor is she as "hip" as Kirsten Dunst and the rest of the in-crowd who cavorted in Sofia Coppola's fashion-forward Marie Antoinette with downtown élan. But that hardly matters in The Duchess. Playing a vivacious colt brokered by her savvy mother (Charlotte Rampling) to a very rich suitor whose chief marital demand is the production of a male heir - not so easy an assignment, as it turns out - Knightley grins or blushes becomingly. She reddens even more erotically when swooning for her own great love, the politician Charles Grey (Dominic Cooper). And that pink-cheeked simplicity works to the film's advantage. She's the people's princess.

    Georgiana is actually the least compelling character in this saga - certainly as played out by Knightley against the charisma that Atwell and, especially, Fiennes bring to their roles. Dibb, who shares screenwriter credit with Jeffrey Hatcher and Anders Thomas Jensen, has a nice eye for vignettes that convey the loneliness that can eat the soul, whether at dinner, in bed, or amid sumptuous displays of pomp and circumstance. Atwell, who plays Julia Flyte in the new Brideshead Revisited, creates an utterly seductive, independent-minded Lady Elizabeth Foster. '"Bess'" was one of English history's most colourful risk-takers, a divorcée who began as Georgiana's great friend, caused that same friend agony when she became the Duke's mistress, and then stuck around the mansion for more than 25 years beloved by them both.

    But it's Fiennes who owns The Ducthess from head to toe. He develops a beautiful, wordless vocabulary of hurt, frustration, sadism, lust, discomfort, arrogance, remorse, and unanalysed pain for his Duke. He speaks with his body what the script cannot formulate about what it's like to be a man apart. He creates particulars of time, space, class, and personality with one crook of a finger, one twist of a wrist. I call that nobility of craft; he's the actors' prince.
  • April 2, 2009
    kind of boring, didn't even get any keira breast shots = boo.
  • November 21, 2009
    I was quite impressed by Keira Knightley's performance but not Fiennes' because I know that he plays great. The film was ok in my point of view. I pity the duchess, it clearly shows that even though she had a title but she also had problems with her "beloved" husband who cheated ...( read more)on her everytime... The sets of the films are impressing and costumes superb.
  • November 18, 2009
    una storia drammatica dai costumi fantastici
  • November 16, 2009
    I want to see it because I like epoch movies (somebody correct me if it write different -epoch movies-) and I'm Keira Knightley's fan.
  • November 14, 2009
    Beautifully shot, acted, and with amazing costuming. The Duchess is clearly another example that Keira Knightly was born to do period dramas. The storyline is what really held the film together and kept me glued to the screen, it's just a shame that it was so heartbreaking.
  • November 11, 2009
    Possibly Keira Knightley's best performances! Keira got an amazing talent in finding the parts in movies that I love! I love all of her movies.. From Domino to Bend it like Beckham to Pirates to Atonement! They are all great movies! And this story is breath-taking! You can hardly...( read more) exhale throughout the movie. There is a sadness over the movie and you just feel for the duchess.. and hate (and sometimes feel sad for) her husband. And I didn't even realise that Dominic Cooper was in it until I saw the end credits. Great.

Critic Reviews


November 20, 2008
Pete Hammond, Hollywood.com

With striking parallels to the life of her direct descendant, Princess Diana, this stunning film of the tortured love life of Duchess Georgiana Spencer is a triumph for its star, Keira Knightley. full review

October 18, 2008
Claudia Puig, USA Today

It chronicles the saga of a vibrant and forward-thinking woman hampered by the constraints of a rigid society. full review

September 26, 2008
Colin Covert, The Minneapolis Star Tribune

The Duchess gives us a gorgeous world, a detailed picture of a time and place that could have been painted by Constable, Gainsborough or Watteau. But you wouldn't want to live there. full review

September 26, 2008
Amy Biancolli, Houston Chronicle

It isn't just eye candy; there's an active intelligence behind this design. full review

September 25, 2008
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

The Duchess is a handsome historical film, impeccably mounted, gowned, wigged and feathered. full review

September 19, 2008
Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal

Princess Di deserves livelier revisionism. full review

September 19, 2008
Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com

Knightley is up to the task. Her Georgiana is history with a human face. full review

September 18, 2008
Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

It's Knightley who makes The Duchess a royal treat. full review

September 18, 2008
Bob Mondello, NPR

Knightley's wig gets bigger and bigger as the character grows more unhappy, until finally it catches fire — leading to the potentially immortal line, "Please put out Her Grace's hair." full review

September 18, 2008
Bob Mondello, NPR.org

Knightley's wig gets bigger and bigger as the character grows more unhappy, until finally it catches fire — leading to the potentially immortal line, "Please put out Her Grace's hair." full review

View more The Duchess reviews at RottenTomatoes.com

Comments


  • maybe912
    March 31, 2009
    great dramatic movie.. i enjoy it so much...
  • saleebaan121
    March 11, 2009
    post in sulaiman
  • Gorgeous9nd9lovin5it
    January 2, 2009
    i cant wait until MARCH for this to come out on dvd! its 2 long!
  • sexycat18
    September 19, 2008
    i think this will be a good movie.
  • AgentLexi2132
    July 20, 2008
    Cannot wait for this movie! Ralph & Keira!
  • carmelaballerina
    December 24, 2007
    I saw the movie trailer "The Duchess" at HBO.
    I'm really excited to watch this movie next year!! LOL

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