The Duchess, despite looking beautiful, falls in line with just about every other period piece you have seen, adding absolutely nothing to the genre. Bland and predictable are the words that come to my mind despite the fact that the early moments of the film presented something at least intriguing beyond the age-old story of how women were repressed and looked down upon by their powerful husbands.
Politics and forward thinking come to the forefront immediately as The Duchess wastes no time getting into things, but following an extremely well made dinner scene in the opening moments the film quickly descends into a film about a broken and squabbling marriage of the aristocracy, hardly a subject matter that has been avoided by both film and television over the years as the lack of imagination in the storytelling is the film’s downfall.
Echoes of the story Sofia Coppola told in 2006’s Marie Antoinette are all over this film, the only difference being Coppola knew what her film was about whereas director Saul Dibb seems to want to paint Georgiana Spencer, the Duchess of Devonshire (Keira Knightley), as not only an instigator in the political process, but also a fashion icon, a gambler, a drinker, a mother, an adulterer and an abiding yet abused wife all at once. I am not saying she wasn’t all those things, but you can’t just say she was a fashion icon or show her gambling and I instantly believe it defines her. Little effort was taken in actually building up her character as much as it was focused on beating her down. Sorry, seen it, and with much more substance behind it.
Continuing the Marie Antoinette comparison, Coppola understood the Antoinette story wasn’t exactly unique and went about changing the film’s temperament to make it feel original while telling a familiar story. Even if you did not like Marie Antoinette you understand the point of trying something new with a story that has been told many times over. Dibb tried to make The Duchess so pretty that it didn’t really matter what it was about. Considering the early marketing had a focus on comparisons of Georgiana to Princess Diana and the latter has paid so much attention to costumes I get the feeling the studio is feeling somewhat similar.
I wasn’t even able to become invested in the more emotional moments of the story because I was already yawning at the familiar stomping grounds of which they tread. Sure, it’s heart-breaking to see someone not able to be with the one they truly love, but when you can see it coming from the opening five minutes your tolerance for their sadness is built up to the point you just don’t care.
Knightley is perfectly fine as Georgiana, but her tendency to stick with period pieces is beginning to give her films something of a been-there feeling. Not to mention her character was so insipid that her teetering on the bend-don’t-break line didn’t even matter considering I didn’t care which side she fell on. She wasn’t a pillar of strength and she wasn’t a woman broken by her weaknesses. Instead, Georgiana was, for lack of a better word, normal. There’s nothing wrong with normal, but it certainly isn’t all that interesting when an entire film is devoted to it.
The Duchess also has a few strange and seemingly out of place comedic moments I’m not so sure were entirely intentional. The most laughable of the bunch occurs when Georgiana goes into labor for the first time and is dragged away from a card table screaming while the Duke (Ralph Fiennes) proposes a toast. Just before leaving the room she lets out one final wail, which I am sure was meant to show how little the Duke cared for her comfort, but it came off as downright hilarious instead.
Getting to the point I have been hammering home, The Duchess is nothing new. You have seen this movie before and absolutely nothing will surprise you. The performances are just about as good as they could have been, the look of the film is extraordinary, but the film itself is just ordinary. Perhaps give it a rent or watch the trailer one more time, anything beyond that is too much of an effort. However, I can’t leave without mentioning Rachel Portman’s score. The music lends a fantastic theme throughout the entire production. Outside of the hard-edged score from The Dark Knight, this is the first piece of music from a 2008 film worth buying.
C-
