Back in the late 18th
century, while England was dealing with rebellion in its colonies and a call
for greater democratization at home, Georgiana Spencer married William
Cavendish, the Duke of Devonshire, and via her husband's Whig-affiliated circle
of associates, she began taking an interest in politics, primarily by
supporting the career of future prime minister (and lover) Charles Grey. In
Saul Dibb's The Duchess—adapted by Jeffrey Hatcher from Amanda Foreman's biography Georgiana—Keira Knightley plays the
duchess as a freethinking fashion plate, admired by the ladies of London for
her sense of style and her insistence that there's no such thing as "freedom in
moderation." But her domestic situation tests her public calls for universal
liberty, as her husband—played with creepily calm menace by Ralph
Fiennes—reminds her that she has no real power in their relationship. He
can sleep with whomever he wants, and squelch her ambitions at any time, just
by threatening to take away her children.
To some extent, The Duchess recalls Sofia Coppola's Marie
Antoinette, in that
it's about bed-hopping and courtly ritual during a time of revolution. Dibb
isn't interested in delivering an audience-unfriendly art film, though. His Duchess is thoroughly populist and
middlebrow, full of all the high wigs, thick powder, perfect diction, and
straightforward dialogue that define bodice-ripping prestige pictures about
silently suffering souls. Knightley's brand of muted iconoclasm has always been
well-suited to just these kind of coach-and-corset movies, and as a result, the
story of her character's fall from idealism to practicality becomes fairly
moving. Dibb and company make too much of the parallels between Georgiana's
story and that of her most famous descendent, Lady Diana Spencer, but at the same
time, the "ironies of fame" material works well—not because of its
specific application to the aristocracy, but for how it relates to the
commoners. Lots of people dream of better lives for themselves and the citizens
of the world. And lots of people stop short when they realize they need to stay
home and tuck their kids into bed, so the next generation can have their own
unfulfilled dreams someday.