The Dutchess

2008, cert: 12, running time: 105 mins

Director: Saul Dibb

Actors Keira Knightly, Ralph Finnes, Dominic Cooper, Charlotte Rampling

In fact, the biggest reason that I wanted to watch this was because a couple of friends of mine were extras in this film. Much of it was shot in Bath, just down the road from my house and the city where I went to school, so I could also play "spot the filming location" in a very Skins-esque way. I managed to pick out one of my friends in the ballroom scene. If you're not from Bristol or the UK all of this will mean little to you. Apologies.

So, you may have guessed that it was not actually my idea to watch this, and costume dramas are definitely not my thing in general. Still, open-mindedly I had heard lots of good things about the film, even that Kiera does some quite good acting.

There are some interesting themes in the film, freedom most obviously, but misogyny and celebrity along with the normal predictable lovey-dovey-ness that I was fearing. That's not to say a film about love is necessarily uninteresting, but the same could be said of an Arnie film about blowing shit up. Its just that neither is reinventing the wheel. The whole premise of the film is laid out neatly for us in the first 5 minutes or so; with Georgiana (Kiera) having a jolly time with the dashing young Charles (Dominic Cooper) only to then discover she is to marry the very wealthy Duke of Devonshire (Lord Voldemort) on the basis of her being able to provide an heir for him. Hence she becomes "The Dutchess." Neat.

Anyway, I'm not in the business of spoiling plots but it did slightly grate on me that although Georgiana was in some way supposed to be empathised with, the character was just incredibly annoying, selfish and at times very stupid... Now, I am absolutely in no way saying that I have anything but contempt for the way in which she was treated, but exactly what did she expect? It was still legal for a husband to beat his wife - or give her "moderate correction" (although the whole thing about that being the rule of thumb is apparently rubbish). It is actually as if someone from the present has been transported back to Georgian times and although they know how to do all the bowing and so on, she still expects to be treated in some way equally. That would clearly in no way happen. That is why women chained themselves to railings, that is why Emily Wilding Davison threw herself under the King's horse at Epsom. But that is 150 years in the future. The subjugation of women is clearly a very important subject for a film to be made about, but I felt it was only used as a device to make Lord Voldemort of Devonshire into the bad guy. Using a high society costume drama love story to say something interesting about women's rights would have been a damn fine idea, but sadly Georgiana was not concerned in much apart from herself.

Still, missed opportunities to say something important aside, The Dutchess was interesting enough (although possibly only because of the "spot the location" game). Kiera was better than she usually is, although a young Emma Thompson would have been stunning. Lord V was very good at being very unlikable to our modern eyes, and was consistently believable unlike Kiera. I suppose the Catch-22 is that without Kiera plastered all over the cover then the film would never have done the business that it did. Still, The Dutchess is distracting enough, but definitely a missed opportunity.