The Duchess

The Duchess (Movie)

What comes around goes around.

Visually, this is a very beautiful movie. The costumes and scenery are stunning, but I came away thinking that I was missing something. The overall plot is not very deep so I think that those who have read the book that this movie is based on – Georgiana: Duchess of Devonshire by Amanda Foreman might have an upper hand as to what was going on in the periphery.

What the movie portrays is a beautiful woman (Kiera Knightly) trapped in a marriage to a man more interested in heirs then in his wife, so when the opportunity presents itself the Duke of Devonshire (Ralph Fiennes) moves his mistress it the home to taunt his wife with a woman who can have male heirs; and only to make matters more hurtful, the mistress in question was once the best friend of the Duchess herself.

Not to be outdone, the Duchess takes on her own lover and publicly taunts her husband with a game of one-upsmanship. Unfortunately, in the 18th – century, this cannot end well for the woman and so with what was once a shining moment, she now finds herself begging for the morsels of her former life.

I enjoyed the movie, I just wished that I had known more of the back story so I could appreciate the overall portrayal more and understood who all the side characters were.

Princess Diana Spencer is a distant relative of Duchess Georgiana Spencer and after watching this movie you do wonder if History does repeat itself.