Royal pains

Keira Knightley’s face bugs me. I get distracted by her cheek bones. No, I’m not jealous of them; I think my cheek bones are perfectly fine. I just think that her face sometimes looks like she forces a certain look, like she’s trying to suck in her cheeks the entire time. Add that to the fact that she’s seriously tiny. I’m not trying to be mean or catty, but if TV adds ten pounds on actors and actresses, she must be a toothpick in real life. But behind every cloud there is a silver lining, I say, and despite all physical peculiarities, Knightley did a damn fine job in The Duchess.

I didn’t really know much about the Duchess of Devonshire, Georgiana Spencer, but being as I am a fan of period dramas, it’s no surprise why I would be drawn to this film. I’m particularly a fan of historical fiction, such as those written by Sarah Dunant, and even the non-fiction, literary work of Antonia Fraser. The lives of the celebrated women in British royal history are not small and uneventful; they are filled with turmoil, passion and a great many scandals. Marie Antoinette, the movie which starred Kirsten Dunst and was directed by Sofia Coppola, was the most recent period drama about a woman in the royal family that I’d seen before The Duchess, and I was actually pretty disappointed in that one, despite my being a fan of the book it was based upon, Antonia Fraser’s Marie Antoinette. I thought that Sofia Coppola did a fine job to create a visually stunning work of art, but they failed to capture the substance that was so present in the life of the glamorous Marie Antoinette. Yes, she was fashionable, extravagant and a compulsive socialite, but she was also extremely lonely. Although Dunst did a decent job and channeled her The Virgin Suicides character Lux Lisbon, I felt like the story did not progress quite as well as I wanted it to, and the writers had cut out a great deal from the actual history that I felt should have been told.

Keira Knightley plays the Duchess of Devonshire, considered one of the most influential women in history.

That said, without knowing anything about the Duchess of Devonshire, I felt like the story was told well. You needn’t be a history buff to appreciate the story of this strong and passionate woman. I couldn’t remember looking away or even getting impatient at the pace of the film. I thought the film was visually well-made, with special props to the costumes and make-up department who always wow when it comes to period pieces. And as I previously mentioned, Keira Knightley did a fine job. She was restrained but charming, and she was able to portray the loneliness of the Duchess’ title and life pretty well. The thing about Knightley is that sometimes she comes off as too much of a modern woman when she shouldn’t, such as in Atonement, I felt like she was sometimes too 21st century for a character that should be acting like she belongs in a certain period. Yes, there’s such a thing as a modern woman in the 1950s or something, but sometimes I just feel like I’m looking at Domino Harvey in the 50s. However, it can be said that she did no such thing in The Duchess. As soon as she became the Duchess of Devonshire, I saw her as the Duchess of Devonshire, complete with crazy hats and extravagant gowns. It was in this movie that I was able to fully appreciate her acting, which I had never been able to do in any of her past movies.

In one particular scene that I found very moving, the Duchess gives up her illegitimate daughter Eliza to her lover Charles Grey’s family. For someone very young (Knightley is 23) and who has not had any children, she delivered a very moving performance as a mother who just lost a child. I found myself sympathizing with her character, and you can’t help but feel, watching Knightley, that her predicament just tugs at your heart strings. You feel sorry for her, but you also feel empowered because she (the Duchess) shows so much strength and resolve.

Special mention needs to be given to Ralph Fiennes, who in my opinion, can do no wrong. This man is incredibly talented, and I like that he is able to let his costars shine. His work is quiet but methodical, and his performances are so precise. This guy is a method actor who gets under the character’s skin, but who also doesn’t drown in it. He practices a lot of restraint in the role, but in the end of the film, manages to inject a lot of subtle wisdom and even inner turmoil in just a few lines.

The film is wonderfully cast, brilliantly performed, and I feel that the story of the Duchess of Devonshire was accurately portrayed. The Duchess of Devonshire lived a hard life. She was married to a man who abused her and treated her like crap, but she was also a woman who was ahead of her time. She was intelligent, she campaigned for politicians well before women’s suffrage was even on the table, and she was charming. She was extremely fashionable and loved being the center of attention, much like her French counterpart Marie Antoinette. The woman is admirable for her display of inner strength and patience. For someone who had to endure having her husband’s lover living in the same house with them and bearing his children, she definitely endured.

After the movie, I found myself thinking about the character and the film in general, and eventually of the actual person. If a movie is so good that you come away from it remembering scenes and thinking about what you would do if you were in the characters’ situations, that’s a successful movie. Keira Knightley, though I had never before  been a fan of yours, consider me impressed.