As a probe into the sexual politics of eighteenth-century England, The Duchess effectively paints an unremitting portrait of how love and breeding greatly differed among the social elite.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 20, 2024

Hands Keira Knightley another plum leading role and serves as yet another example of how Ralph Fiennes' brooding brand of acting can be successfully employed for all manner of characters.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 19, 2021

The film's real scene-stealer is Fiennes... Despite playing a cad of few words, he manages to elicit both hatred and sympathy from the audience in equal amounts.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 4, 2021

A frothy concoction simmering at the same moderate temperature as the recent The Other Boleyn Girl, but still capable of bubbling-up some fun here and there.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Jun 19, 2020

Dibb never overwhelms the emotions with overwrought speeches or gaudy costumes, or boggs them down with unnecessary soap opera histrionics.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 7, 2019

Knightley shines, taking Georgiana from carefree teen to ignored wife then motherhood in a hugely sensitive and honest portrayal. The outfits are stunning, their scale extraordinary, the attention to detail first class; with fashions changing as she does.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Feb 21, 2019

Ignore the details and focus on the big picture. In a year when everybody's focused on the role of women in politics, the life of the Whig trailblazer Georgiana offers plenty of food for thought.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Dec 13, 2018

This is meant to be Ms Knightley's film, and in many ways it is. She is in every frame, looks dazzling throughout, and must act with something behind the eyes because in two of her scenes... I welled up rather seriously.

| Aug 23, 2018

Keira wears a series of gorgeous frocks and runs through her full repertoire of smirks and simpers... But if you can look past the dresses and the sullen lips, then you have to admit that [she] delivers another solid performance.

| Sep 29, 2016

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 17, 2011

The Duchess is one of the best and most opulently entertaining historical dramas I have seen in a long time, and it features splendid performances from Keira Knightley and Ralph Fiennes.

| Jul 6, 2010

The Duchess doesn't pretend to be anything other than what it is: a comfortable, low-calorie morsel of historical drama.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Oct 9, 2009

a refreshing look at British royalty, and it will curb your want to be part of that era, age and societal level

| Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 5, 2009

Everything you'd expect it to be: a well-acted British period piece with lavish attention to period detail, about discontented characters in a royal family. And that's about it.

| Original Score: 5/10 | Feb 9, 2009

| Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 5, 2009

At its simplest, it's a gorgeous film with beautiful period costumes and intricate set designs. However, something tells me that's not the level director Saul Dibb wanted to achieve greatest on.

| Jan 24, 2009

Knightley and Cooper don't ever generate much in the way of chemistry.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jan 6, 2009

Willing to settle for all-around competency instead of excavating history for deeper insights, leaving audiences with another undemanding genre placeholder. [Blu-ray]

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Dec 31, 2008

Deserves credit for playing things straight %u2013 complete with its moral quagmire and inherent sadness. The performances of Knightley, Fiennes and Atwell really make it work.

Full Review | Original Score: 75/100 | Dec 29, 2008

...plays like a Masterpiece Theater adaptation of an eighteen-century soap opera.

| Original Score: 5/10 | Dec 28, 2008