- There’s been much brouhaha about this movie riffing off the Princess Diana story between the “There were three people in her marriage” tagline and the whole “People’s Princess” stuff (and Georgiana herself apparently being an ancestor of Diana), which I totally buy despite denial on behalf of people involved in the film because I cared about Georgiana about as much as I cared about Diana: very little. At the end of the movie I was left thinking “The point of this was…?” I don’t know, the tragic lovelorn plight of near-royals does not move me toward any feelings of sympathy.
- Knowing what we know about modern science and chromosomes, I just love any historical film revolving around a couple’s inability to produce a male heir and the subsequent blaming of this failure on the woman.
- I was kind of thrilled by the unhappy ending wherein Georgiana stays in her loveless marriage for the sake of duty and a small detail like not abandoning her children. Earlier in the film the Duke expresses that he agrees with Georgiana’s mother’s statement that Georgiana should put “common decency” before her personal pleasure, i.e. stick around and raise your fucking kids instead of going off gallivanting with the comely young politician, and since we’re supposed to view the Duke as an enemy of love and passion and All Things Awesome™ that Georgiana holds so dear, I guess we’re supposed to think him and his mother-in-law as horrid, horrid people for saying this. I don’t know, I don’t particularly understand infidelity and I definitely don’t understand abandoning your children for the sake of your affair. The Duke is a total prick and a hypocritical one at that, but come on now. When Georgiana finally tells the comely young politician that she’s not going to run away with him because, unlike him, she’s got actual obligations, I was pretty satisfied.
- There was really bad pathetic fallacy in this movie. I can’t even remember what the oh-so-shocking revelation was in this particular scene, but it was accompanied by a fairly earnest thunderclap that was trying so hard but failing so miserably. Why do filmmakers bother with obvious stuff like that?
- I like movies with costumes of this sort but hate the term “costume porn”. Come to think of it, I hate the term porn when referring to anything other than actual pornography.
- Ultimately this movie has the same boring, stylized gaze that you’d expect from 20th century paparazzi, which would be terribly clever in regards to the referencing of Princess Diana if it didn’t also make the movie so tedious.
- I kept picturing Keira Knightley dressed as Queen Amidala’s decoy from The Phantom Menace and that improved things somewhat. Otherwise, I just don’t get Keira Knightley.
- The best part about this movie was the trailer for Revolutionary Road. Kate and Leo, together again! I love them. Inexplicably, I also completely forgot that the movie takes place in the 1950s so it will be Kate and Leo living inside Mad Men and, well, that’s just heaven.
The Duchess
I am absolutely shocked to see Keira Knightley in a period piece.
IMDB Plot Synopsis A chronicle of the life of 18th century aristocrat Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, who was reviled for her extravagant political and personal life.