Of little historical importance

Rating: 5/10 (29 May 2009)

The Duchess Georgiana (Knightley) cannot produce male heirs for the Duke (Fiennes), and takes lover Charles Grey (Cooper). The Duke has his mistress Bess (Atwell), but he still is not happy. Oh, these poor rich people.
One of the reasons I like these English Royalty stories is you get to see the castles and palaces and their gardens, the architecture, the landscapes, and the moats. As for the story, we all know what they are all about. The Duke wants heirs, the woman he marries can't produce, wife falls in love with a non-Royal, the Duke has his mistress and they all live together, sort of. (That's one version and another would be almost the same except they pride themselves on killing off each other to work their way up the Royalty chain. That is not the case here. The first scenario sticks.)
Now, where do you suppose we got all that information? How do we know what really happened back then? Remember all those servants standing around almost everywhere? Well, they got together and wrote tell-all books. All kept very hush-hush. Until now. And, I love this part: This is based upon a true story. See? How do we know? Indeed.
The overall production is good, but very slow and very little T&A (the royalty stories are sometimes good for that too. But not this one). The acting is good, but no surprises and as such the whole thing could have been cut down quite a bit. Too much emphasis on what the women wore, the parties, the wigs and, of course, proper manners. The music was too subdued for this kind of a production. It should have been more prominent. Sometimes I wonder why these movies are made in the first place. Here practically nothing happens from a historical aspect. (But, remember that Charles Grey did become Prime Minister later on). Yes, then the story should have been about him.
But, all that aside, seeing the palaces, the gardens, the architecture, the landscapes and the moats were all worth the price of admission. Didn't I mention that was the reason I liked these English Royalty stories?
Violence: No. Sex: Yes. Nudity: No. Language: No.