Focuses far too much on the cold accuracy of details than actually emotionally involving the audience in the story. Sumptuous but barren
Comment
09/29/08
The Duchess (2008)
61
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:158
Fresh:96
Rotten:62
Average Rating:6.2/10
Consensus: While The Duchess treads the now-familiar terrain of the corset-ripper, the costumes look great and Keira Knightley's performance is stellar in this subtly feminist, period drama.
Runtime: 1 hr 45 mins
Genre: Dramas
US Box Office: $13,823,741
Synopsis: After PRIDE AND PREJUDICE and ATONEMENT, Keira Knightley continues her reign as the queen of the period film with this 18th-century costume drama. The corset-clad actress stars as Georgiana... [More]
Starring: Keira Knightley, Ralph Fiennes, Charlotte Rampling, Dominic Cooper
Director: Saul Dibb
Reviews for The Duchess
1 - 20 (sorted by rotten rating; Australian critics are listed first)
Top CriticKnightley seems overly deliberate even in her mischief, and doesn't have Kirsten Dunst's talent for turning acting into a flirtatious game of charades.
10/03/08
Top CriticThe film's real power lies with Knightley. She easily could have gone over the emotional top, but instead gives a measured performance that increasingly draws you in.
10/03/08
Top CriticA mature, restrained portrayal from Knightley, a masterclass in passive aggression from Fiennes and a performance of tender seduction from Atwell.
10/03/08
Top CriticMouth watering scandal, a juicy love triangle and high powered men behaving badly make this a solid drama about character and society in 18th century England
09/28/08
Top CriticIntelligently written, superbly acted, beautiful to look at and happily free of anachronisms.
10/10/08
Top CriticIt seems Princess Diana was not the only royal whose marriage comprised three people. This cinematic and emotionally potent drama set in the 18th century and based on a true story, looks at a menage a trois that is filled with compelling elements
09/28/08
Top CriticKeira Knightley is really splendid...
10/03/08
Top CriticKnightley, whose glamorous reputation has outstripped her acting talents until now, is subjected to a barrage of close-ups, which could have been disastrous. Yet it isn't. In this one, she really comes of age.
10/10/08
Top CriticIt is easy to become immersed in the plight of these characters whose story is profoundly moving and satisfying.
09/26/08
Top CriticA handsome costume drama that highlights the relationship between the Cinderella outfits and the restrictive privilege of the society from whence they came.
10/03/08
Top CriticClick to read the article
10/18/08
Top CriticIn the hands of a filmmaker with an actual point of view--Sally Potter, say, or Mike Leigh--this could be a potentially inflammatory tale. But with TV vet Saul Dibb at the helm, it's just a story about a woman who makes one mistake after another.
09/16/08
The film starts off strong and slowly peters out by the end
10/06/08
(U)nless you are a spinster sans a recognizable love life, or someone with little previous knowledge of the genre, everything here will seem rote, baroque, and exceedingly dull.
10/09/08
The Duchess is this season's "painted cinema." All the colors are there and it's never hard to look at, but it's ultimately as two-dimensional as a trip to the art gallery.
09/26/08
Though sumptuous and well-acted -- especially by Fiennes -- the picture fails to establish Georgiana as a figure just crying out for a film treatment.
10/10/08
...a film that could have been a bold feminist statement becomes fodder for those who just loved The Other Boleyn Girl.
09/29/08
[Viewers] may wish to heed the marital advice Georgiana's mother offers early in the film: 'Equip yourself with patience, fortitude, and resignation.'
09/26/08
Saul Dibb's foamy adaptation of Amanda Foreman's "Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire" focuses its soft soap attention so much on its leading lady's personal struggles that it all but leaves out the story's broiling 18th century political and social context
09/13/08
Latest News for The Duchess
January 07, 2009:
People's Choice Awards Winners Announced
The 35th annual People's Choice Awards were handed out on January 7, 2009. A complete list of film nominees, with winners in bold, follows below. More...
January 03, 2009:
Not just another royal goddess in a gilded cage costume drama, the film couldn't be more current now, when women bidding for the highest political offices are told to go home and take care of their kids or iron male shirts. Sexual subversion in corsets. 
More...
December 28, 2008:
Not just another royal goddess in a gilded cage costume drama, the film couldn't be more current now, when women bidding for the highest political offices are told to go home and take care of their kids or iron male shirts. Sexual subversion in corsets.
More...
October 12, 2008:
Emarketingmag.com: Not just another royal goddess in a gilded cage costume drama, the film couldn't be more current now, when women bidding for the highest political offices are told to go home and take care of their kids or iron male shirts.
More...
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