Excellent costuming, BUT Knightley is not the actress for this

Rating: 6/10 (2 January 2009)

Fantastic settings: Althorp, Chatsworth, Bath etc; amazing budget on costumes - without a doubt the best since Sophia Coppola's Marie Anotoinette - and a feast for the eyes with it's detail for Georgian times.
However, and it's a huge however, no matter how great the production values, and this looks pretty expensive, nothing can disguise the fact that Knightley is beautiful but fails to be more than than a good actress. She is not a great actress. This may be an unpopular comment, but in the scenes with Rampling or Fiennes she lacks depth. As a young ingénue thrust into a marriage she is perfect; as the most political women of her day who found herself in probably the most famous triangle before Prince Charles, not so.
She is in no way bad, and this is watchable, but it is not brilliant. It is a great shame. Knightley must find a way to really convey the smallest gesture to mean more. She loses her temper reasonably well, but not completely. One senses there is no madness, it is all too self-conscious and shows too much control. One gets the sense that she is an actress, but not a fully developed one.
We enjoyed this, but my wife's comment on The Duchess was the same as mine: looks brilliant, lacks power.