The Duchess (12A) Star rating: **** Dir: Saul Dibb With: Keira Knightley, Ralph Fiennes, Dominic Cooper click here to watch the trailer Such is the air of pomp, circumstance and all round National Trust-ness surrounding Saul Dibb's film, screens showing it should be fenced off with red rope and overpriced cream teas sold in foyers in place of hotdogs. Yet what elevates this gorgeously realised biopic of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, apart from the usual carriages and bonnets fare, is its determination to be of its time yet whisper seductively to modern audiences.
That ambition has already landed the film-makers in tepid water. With the marketing of the picture playing up the Diana connection for all it is worth - Georgiana was the late princess's great, great, great, great aunt - the director, cast and Amanda Foreman, on whose biography the film is based, have tried to distance themselves from any claims of exploitation and dumbing down. As well they might, given the seriousness of the book and the obvious pains taken to craft this as a classy period drama.
One fancies, though, that they protest a tad too much. The portrayal of the Duchess, played by Keira Knightley, as a celebrity, fashion icon and people pleaser, her husband (Ralph Fiennes) as a chilly blue blood, and the emphasis on the three way nature of their graces' union - the picture's tagline is the Diana-esque "There were three people in her marriage" - rings more bells than Quasimodo.
If the stories of The Duchess and the princess show anything, it is that the ways of the aristocracy have not changed much over the centuries. Georgiana, just 17, is chosen by the Duke after meeting him twice. She is a girl who fancies herself in love; he is a noble in search of a male heir. Their courtship and marriage is played out like a minuet, with the spirited, loving Georgiana continually rushing to her husband, only to meet a cold front of indifference.
Before Dibb, who also wrote the screenplay with Jeffrey Hatcher and Anders Thomas Jensen (Red Road), can let the pair get to know each other, he takes care to get the measure of the 18th-century times. As in his directorial debut, 2004's crime drama Bullet Boy, Dibb creates a claustrophobic world within which characters seem trapped like bluebottles in a jar. This time it is not the ugly inner city that provides a stage for the action but some of England's most beautiful stately homes. From Devonshire House in London to Althorp itself, Dibb invites Georgiana, and the audience, to feast on the affluence. Only by seeing what is at stake can the risks taken by Georgiana be appreciated.
As married life for Georgiana becomes a grim whirl of pregnancies and disappointments, the duchess finds solace in gambling, her new friend Bess (Hayley Atwell) and Whig politics. Among the latter's most obvious attraction is the dashing Earl Grey (Dominic Cooper back on breeches duty after Sense and Sensibility).
Georgiana's life was not without incident, and Dibb does a fine job of cramming in as many of these as possible while not making her life seem like EastEnders in horsehair wigs. The story swishes along, entertaining and informing at the same time. Knightley, coiffed and primped to within an inch of her life, makes a stunning centrepiece in some exquisitely crafted scenes. More impressive is the way the Atonement star, showing a sensitivity far beyond her years, transforms Georgiana from a naive girl to an intelligent woman in her own right.
Those partial to a little upper class slap and tickle with their history lesson will not be disappointed here. Rest assured that glances duly smoulder, garments are cast off, and four posters see their share of action. And of course it's all done in impeccably good taste.
With mentions due to Dominic Cooper, Hayley Atwell, and Charlotte Rampling (playing Georgiana's coolly pragmatic mother) for making the most of satellite parts, the film belongs to Knightley and Fiennes. The latter is so good, indeed, that he rather caddishly upstages Knightley. Fiennes's duke could have been, and in some ways is, a pantomime villain of the old school. But he is also revealed to be as much a prisoner of circumstance as his unhappy wife, albeit one com- forted by vast wealth, influence and privilege.
Last seen as an Essex hardman in In Bruges, Fiennes shows again what devilishly good comic timing he has. Like a cross between Prince Philip and Jack Dee, he doesn't so much utter his killer put-downs as detonate them in the middle of rooms. His interventions, and a generally astute script, help to keep the melodrama from the door.
In a scene that sums up Dibb's gentle but telling way with the story, he has the duke and duchess talk of their future. Like two wounded survivors of a marital war, they are careful to show tenderness to each other. The shouting matches are over, the wounds healed, and all that remains is civility. How very National Trust.
