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Friday 9 January 2009

All she needs is love

The Duchess
12A, Nationwide

True enough, Georgiana has her consolations. She is beautiful, glamorous, adored by the common people — although we’re never really shown why exactly — and a fashion icon, to boot. I would settle, I think, for being beautiful, glamorous, adored by the common people and a fashion icon to boot, yet it is love that she is after, and she eventually finds it with Charles Grey (Cooper), a future prime minister and the future Earl Grey, who will do clever things with tea and bergamot oil. But can their love survive the strictures of the Duke and Bess, marriage and motherhood, friendship and class, and the cliché that is the gaping white shirt? Yes! No problem! Easy peasy Japanesey! OK, maybe not.

This is meant to be Ms Knightley’s film, and in many ways it is. She is in every frame, looks dazzling throughout, and must act with something behind the eyes because in two of her scenes — being forced to choose between her children and her lover; being forced to give away her baby by Grey — I welled up rather seriously. She has her distracting quirks, like the pout and the way her nose pinches in at the end when she is about to cry, but this is still probably her most mature performance to date. (Come on, everybody, time to leave off Keira. Maybe, even, your nose pinches in a little when you are about to cry. Have a look next time.) Even so, though, Ralph Fiennes does, I think, rather steal the film away from her. The Duke is a cold fish, brutal and cruel, but Fiennes plays him with such nuanced pathos we appreciate that he is as much a victim (of his time, in this instance) as anyone. The Duke, by the way, was one of the richest men in England. Glamorous, beautiful, beloved by the common people, a fashion icon and married to the richest man in England. Georgiana, dear, do get a grip.

The Duchess tries to get to the emotional realities behind the great hats and wigs, just as it also touches on the constraints of gender, the constraints of class and the whole Diana thing, but it never insists upon them to the point at which it becomes annoying or laboured. It’s an enjoyable romp, if a rather sanitised one. Where is the dirt, the dung, the sweat and the rude bawdiness of, say, Hogarth’s world? It is all very well-mannered and decorous but what the hell. This isn’t a ground-breaking film in any way whatsoever, but it does give good costume drama, and that’s always enough to swing it for me.

More articles from: Deborah Ross | this section

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