A hand-picked virgin bride languishes in a loveless marriage while her aristocrat husband cavorts with his long standing mistress. With few outlets for expression, our scorned heroine concentrates her energies on pomp and fashion, becoming a style icon and a princess of hearts. Her increasingly enraged husband, jealous of her popularity, seeks to suppress her flamboyancy. She eventually finds solace, after many lonely years raising and bearing potential heirs, in the arms of another.
Amanda Foreman’s biography of 18th-century English aristocrat Georgiana Cavendish, Now a Major Motion Picture, is so close to the Princess Diana story we are only surprised that the film doesn’t close with a high speed coach race featuring realist painters galloping along behind a recklessly driven vehicle.
If the parallels between Georgiana and her direct descendant weren’t already obvious, The Duchess is prepared to twist into the most remarkable anachronistic asanas to reinforce the point. Keira Knightley, essaying the title character, is hand sketched everywhere she goes by proto-paparazzi. She breastfeeds her children! She advocates one man, one vote! In the spirit of geese and gander equality, she even requests an open marriage.
Ralph Fiennes, meanwhile, playing her errant husband, potters about mumbling in a manner that immediately lets us know whom he has modelled his character upon. The actor’s reputation as a true life cad only furthers the effectiveness of his performance. Ms. Knightley, who is always at her best being prickly, wounded and poignantly lovely, is more than capable of keeping up.
What a shame that Hayley Atwell, playing The Third Person in the Marriage, is altogether too bland to convince us that she might ever come between this stronger, well-acted characters. Happily, she is very much kept in the margins as this bodice-ripping romp progresses.
Continuity hounds might complain about the contemporised dialogue or the fact that the ageless royal children appear to live in Peter Pan’s Neverland. But those who swooned for the similarly themed Other Boleyn Girl would be advised to bring leeches and smelling salts for this superior drama.