Movies
The Duchess
Fine costume piece. Well, the costumes anyhow are fine. The piece as a whole is only fairish, a predigested potage of 18th-century sexism, blueblood cold-bloodedness, paramours, bastards, the mandatory male heir, all of it “based on a true story.” Rachel Portman’s music, much more than Saul Dibb’s direction, creates the frequent illusion of something better than fairish. And Keira Knightley, unshadowingly surrounded by Ralph Fiennes, Dominic Cooper, Hayley Atwell, Simon McBurney, and Charlotte Rampling, commands the screen with force and nuance and bone structure. The camera, as they say, loves her. 2008.
Reader Rating:
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Length: 105
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