Feast for the senses sadly fails to satisfy

Evening Chronicle (Newcastle, England), Sept 5, 2008

THE DUCHESS

(12A, 110 mins) Drama. Keira Knightley, Ralph Fiennes, Dominic Cooper, Charlotte Rampling, Hayley At well, Simon McBurney, Aidan McArdle. Director: Saul Dibb. *****

DIRECTOR Saul Dibb (Bullet Boy) ventures confidently into the realms of lavish costume drama with this adaptation of Amanda Foreman's best-selling biography Georgiana, Duchess Of Devonshire.

The Duchess is impeccably tailored, dazzling the eyes with Michael Carlin's meticulous production design, Michael O'Connor's resplendent costumes and Jan Archibald's voluminous, cascading wigs.

Director of photography Guyla Pados atones for the I sins of Basic Instinct 2: Risk Addiction by capturing the pomp and pageantry of mid-18th Century high society in all its glory, shooting on location in the picturesque surroundings of Somerset House in London and Holkham Hall in Norfolk.

It's truly a feast for the senses, although Jeffery Hatcher's screenplay leaves us feeling emotionally undernourished.

As history lessons go, this is a tad dry.

The film's heaving bosom is 17-year-old social butterfly Georgiana Spencer (Knightley), whose standing within the fiercely competitive aristocracy will be determined by a marriage contract.

Lady Spencer (Rampling) encourages her daughter to accept a proposal from the brutish and considerably older Duke of Devonshire (Fiennes).

The nobleman urgently requires a male heir and Georgiana will be paid handsomely to carry out her duties as a woman and ensure the continuation of the Duke's proud bloodline.

Georgiana quickly discovers that marriage is anything but bliss - the Duke shows more affection to his dogs and is wont to bed the housemaids.

When she gives birth to not one but two daughters, his eye wanders and he takes Georgiana's friend Bess Foster (Atwell) as his mistress, driving his young wife ever closer to her one true love, Charles Grey (Cooper), ambitious protege of Whig Party leader Charles Fox (McBurney).

The whiff of potential scandal hangs in the air and Georgiana is forced to sacrifice the man that means everything to her.

The Duchess waltzes through the period with elan, recreating the giddy social whirl and its key figures such as playwright Richard Sheridan (McArdle) who joins Fox in observing: "The Duke of Devonshire must be the only man in England not in love with his wife."

Fiennes is impressive as a cold, repressed man, constrained by the traditions of his age, revealing the chinks of vulnerability and sadness behind the character's cruel facade.

"As a husband, I have fulfilled my obligations. As a wife, you have not," he rages. Knightley conceals her heroine's emotions a little too well behind the powder and rouge, and Cooper doesn't have sufficient screen time to convincingly establish Grey as the love of Georgiana's life.

Consequently, their heartbreaking final sacrifice doesn't tug the heartstrings with the ferocity that it perhaps should.

NO SWEARING; SEX; VIOLENCE

Keira Knightley's film career...

Silk (2007) - Helene Joncour

Atonement (2007) - Cecilia Tallis

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007) - Elizabeth Swann

The Pirates of the Caribbean 2 (2006) - Elizabeth Swann

Pride and Prejudice (2005) - Elizabeth Bennet

Domino (2005) - Domino

The Jacket (2005) - Jackie

King Arthur (2004) - Guinevere

Love Actually (2003) - Juliet

Pirates of the Caribbean (2003) - Elizabeth Swann

Doctor Zhivago (2002) - Lara Antipova (nee Guishar)

Pure (2002) - Louise

Thunderpants (2002) - Music School Student

Bend It Like Beckham (2002) - Juliette 'Jules' Paxton

The Hole (2001) - Frances 'Frankie' Almond Smith

Princess of Thieves (2001) - Gwyn

Oliver Twist (1999) - Rose Fleming

Star Wars: Episode I (1999) - Sabe, Queen's Decoy

Coming Home (1998) - Young Judith

Innocent Lies (1995) - Young Celia

A Village Affair (1994) - Natasha Jordan

CAPTION(S):

DAZZLING - Keira Knightley; POMP AND PAGEANTRY - scene from the film