Keira Reigns Over Duchess

Today we have Brangelina and Britney, but in 18th century England they had Georgiana Spencer Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire (that’s Spencer, like Diana Spencer by the way – you may know her as the Princess of Wales). Duchess Georgiana was the toast of every party, her image was splashed across every newspaper and canvass, her gambling was legendary, her politics revolutionary, her fashion iconic, and her love life simply scandalous (even by today’s standards). And in Saul Dibb’s The Duchess, Keira Knightley gives us even more to talk about.

As she did in her Oscar-nominated performance in Pride and Prejudice, Knightley breathes life into her famously beloved character, filling the screen despite her waifish frame (the voluminous dresses and hair pieces help) with her radiating presence. Her beauty is a thing alone. Swimming in envy-inducing yards of fabric, surrounded by fabulous chandeliers and chandelier earrings, Knightley finds a way to rise amongst the grandeur, much like the woman she portrays. But it’s Knightley’s ability to bring such depth and despair to the famous royal that stays with you long after the rolling credits.

Don’t be fooled by her regal appearance. Georgiana’s is hardly a happy story. Married young to a horribly dull, oppressive and older man (Ralph Fiennes who nearly steals the show by being so thoroughly detestable) who preferred his dogs to his wife, and expected nothing more of her than to bear heirs, Georgiana found her love life one of duty and distress, which for such a thoroughly encapsulating woman of wit and intelligence, must have been a difficulty. One character could not have put it more perfectly when he said that the Duke was the only man in London not in love with his wife. And with Keira in the starring role, who could blame them?

But the Duke of Devonshire, despite his obvious and well-documented lack of charm, still managed to have his fair share of affairs, thrusting a love child, Charlotte, upon his young wife to raise as her own (one of London’s worst kept secrets). And much like Marie Antoinette, of whom she was a personal acquaintance, Georgiana (called G by her friends – how Gossip Girl of her), struggled to have boys, suffering several miscarriages and two girls before finally having young Hart.

Yet the real trouble of her much-chronicled marriage (on which Richard Sheridan’s play “School for Scandal” is based), was the appearance of a third party. At first one of Georgiana’s closest friends, taken under her wing in her time of need, Lady Elizabeth “Bess” Foster (an excellent Hayley Atwell), soon went from bosom friend to husband’s mistress. It is under this heartbreak that Knightley and Fiennes soar – rivals in pith and open hostility.

However, it was also the highly sympathetic Bess who pushed Georgiana into the arms of her life-long love, Charles Grey (Dominic Cooper), who would one day be prime minister. Torn between maternal affection and the desire for passion, The Duchess’ Georgiana is a bird consistently beating against her heavily-gilded cage and finding its doors always closed against her.

But perhaps more than anything, it’s Knightley’s gut-wrenching portrayal of her trapped starling that makes us all leave the theater looking for our own ways to soar.