Not a bad movie

Rating: 7/10 (20 January 2009)

Kind of an overdrawn costume drama.
The problem with most historical films or books is that they impose a modern sensibility to the character's plight. In our modern, post-feminist world, the plight of Georgina, Duchess of Devonshire, seems quite absurd. Her husband can have a mistress, openly display her in front of all to see, but if she takes a lover in secret, it is a great scandal for which she is severely penalized. To us, this seems quite unreasonable, but at the time, people dealt with it.
This takes place in the period of revolution in America and France, but it seems (much like Sophia Coppola's "Marie Antonnete", history is something that happens to other people. These folks are too busy with their own soap operas.
The costumes and sets are very nice, and BBC productions have come a long way in production values since the 1970's, where shows like "I Claudius" or "The Wives of Henry the Eigth" were clearly shot on sound stages on the cheap. It's not the "British Broadcasting Charity" anymore.