Hammerman Ikon

Hammerman Ikon Film Guide

The Duchess
2008
**½
Director: Saul Dibb
Cast: Keira Knightley, Ralph Fiennes, Hayley Atwell, Charlotte Rampling, Dominic Cooper, Max Bennett, Aidan McArdle, Simon McBurney

Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire, was a famous 18th century beauty, an active political campaigner, and an influential fashion icon. This lackluster biopic concentrates almost purely on her complicated love life. At the age of seventeen, she marries the Duke of Devonshire, but the dream marriage turns sour when she fails to produce a male heir. Georgiana becomes desperately unhappy, but (laying the path for her distant saintly descendant Lady Diana) she puts her children's happiness ahead of her own. This is a handsomely mounted soap, sadly not much more. The lavish costumes predictably won an Academy Award. Keira Knightley just about pulls off the demanding role, although she looks like she is sucking a lemon for 90 minutes. Ralph Fiennes is disappointingly one-note as the lethargic Duke, who takes no joy in anything.