Keira Knightley is a true Duchess

Rating: 6/10 (2 April 2012)

"The Duchess" was a pretty good movie that is based upon the life of Georgiana The Duchess of Devonshire. This movie was beautifully directed by Saul Gibb. He did an excellent job on this film. The costumes in this movie are gorgeous as well. Keira Knightley is "Georgiana", the beautiful girl who is forced to wed the horrible Duke of Devonshire. Their marriage is pretty much arranged and is also mainly only so that the Duke can produce a male heir. "The Duchess" takes you through the lives of these two as husband and wife. "The Duke" gets frustrated with Georgiana when she cannot produce a male heir right away (their first-born child together was a girl which greatly disappoints "The Duke"). Georgiana also has to deal with The Duke being a philandering pig who has several affairs with different women. Eventually, The Duke seduces Georgiana's best and only friend and this of course breaks her heart. After this happens the three live life an awkward life together. Georgiana eventually falls in love with her friend and politician "Charles Grey". They love each other and want to be together but The Duke forbids it telling Georgiana that if she does develop a relationship with Charles that he will basically make their lives miserable and that he will not let her see her children again.I can't believe he would do this to Georgiana since he's there carrying on and sleeping with her former best friend. He was a pig!! Georgiana decides that although she loves Charles, she cannot abandon her children. So she continues to live with The Duke and Georgiana and to proceed on with her life.
This is a very tragic story to me. I mean Georgiana was quite young when she was "technically" forced to get married to a fairly older man. She is forced to keep getting pregnant so that she can hopefully produce a male heir. Not to mention her husband was a perverted man who broke her heart and betrayed her by sleeping with and forming a relationship with he best friend. I admire Georgiana for being able to be so strong. I know if all that pressure was put on my shoulders I would eventually have gone insane with rage. It's also really sad to me because this was a TRUE story.
Aside from all that. I enjoyed this movie. Keira did a wonderful job as "The Duchess" and Ralph Fiennes did a great job as the HORRIBLE Duke!!I thought the acting was pretty good . Also, as I said earlier, I just loved the costumes in this movie.
You should watch this movie. It's really good. It's a wonderful story about the real Georgiana Duchess Of Devonshire. A great movie about an amazing woman of her time who was well admired by the public.