The book is much better.

Rating: 3/10 (4 February 2012)

Having read the book that this film is based upon my expectations were high although I thought that the short running time could not possibly do justice to the 450 pages of the book, and I was not wrong. It barely skimmed the massive detail contained in the book and was a big let down for me. It was beautifully made with seemingly no expense spared on costumes or locations but to give one example no mention was made of the huge gambling debts run up by the Duchess, which was of course a major problem for her. The author of the book must have been severely disappointed as after seeing this poor film few would want to read her excellent book assuming it to be as bad as the film.