Drag Out Your Period Garb for Another Uninspired Stroll Through History

Rating: 6/10 (13 October 2008)

Keira Knightley has become the go-to actress for portraying spunky feminist characters in period dramas. In her latest, she plays the Duchess of Devonshire, who challenges her husband's right to openly philander by doing some open philandering of her own. But of course she finds that double standards reign supreme, and we are shown the sacrifices a woman is willing to make in order to stay with her children.
The movie is period designed to the hilt, and everything else about it (writing, acting, directing) is fine, but none of it is exceptional. Mostly, it just made me want to watch "Barry Lyndon" again. The movie doesn't distinguish itself from a hundred other period films you've seen that are just like it, and beyond the specifics of the Duchess's life (which may be enough for some viewers), it doesn't tell us anything we don't already know.
I take that back -- it did answer one question for me. If you're wondering whether or not all of those towering wigs surrounded by all of those burning candelabras ever resulted in a pyrotechnic mishap, they did. And punch comes in handy when you're trying to put out a fire.
Grade: B-