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58
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57
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57
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57
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56
Bottle Shock
56
Zack and Miri Make a Porno
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53
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53
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53
Rocker, The
53
Lucky Ones, The
51
Savage Grace
51
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49
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49
Family That Preys, The
47
Swing Vote
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45
Pride and Glory
43
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36
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35
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34
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32
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31
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28
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26
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24
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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
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Duchess, The
Paramount Vantage
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MPAA RATING: PG-13 for sexual content, brief nudity and thematic material
Starring
Keira Knightley,
Ralph Fiennes,
Charlotte Rampling,
Dominic Cooper,
and
Hayley Atwell
Long before the concept existed, the Duchess of Devonshire, Georgiana Spencer, was the original “It Girl.” Like her direct ancestor Princess Diana, she was ravishing, glamorous and adored by an entire country. Determined to be a player in the wider affairs of the world, she proved that she could out-gamble, out-drink and outwit most of the aristocratic men who surrounded her. She helped usher in sweeping changes to England as a leader of the forward-thinking Whig Party. But even as her power and popularity grew, she was haunted by the fact that the only man in England she seemingly could not seduce was her very own husband, the Duke. And when she tried to find her own way to be true to her heart and loyal to her duty, the resulting controversies and convoluted liaisons would leave all of London talking. (Paramount Vantage)
GENRE(S): |
Drama
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WRITTEN BY: |
Jeffrey Hatcher
Amanda Foreman (book "Georgiana. Duchess of Devonshire")
Saul Dibb
Jeffrey Hatcher
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DIRECTED BY: |
Saul Dibb
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RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: December 23, 2008
Theatrical: September 19, 2008
|
RUNNING TIME: |
110 minutes, Color |
ORIGIN: |
USA |
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
88
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
This is not one of those delightful movies based on a Jane Austen novel. It is about hard realists, constrained in a stifling system and using whatever weapons they can command.
83
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Noel Murray
Thoroughly populist and middlebrow, full of all the high wigs, thick powder, perfect diction, and straightforward dialogue that define bodice-ripping prestige pictures about silently suffering souls.
80
Time
Richard Schickel
The players are uniformly good, but a special word must be said for Fiennes, whose portrayal of physical awkwardness and painful taciturnity never begs either for laughs or for sympathy.
80
Los Angeles Times
Kenneth Turan
Even surrounded by all this quality work, Ralph Fiennes, who plays William Cavendish, the fifth duke of Devonshire, the most powerful man in England next to the king, walks off with the picture.
80
New York Magazine
David Edelstein
An uncommonly well-crafted historical feminist tearjerker--both anti-patriarchal and a monument to motherhood.
80
Chicago Reader
J.R. Jones
This is scandal-mongering fun that also lays bare the deforming power of the male aristocracy.
75
San Francisco Chronicle
Ruthe Stein
It tells the amazing, but mostly true, story of a late-18th century aristocrat who made an indelible mark on English society akin to that of her direct descendant, Lady Diana.
75
Charlotte Observer
Lawrence Toppman
If you're fond of wigs, you may be in heaven. If you're more interested in Whigs, you may wish the movie had dug deeper under the lovely powdered surface of Lady Georgiana Spencer.
75
Philadelphia Inquirer
Carrie Rickey
While I much liked The Duchess, this portrait feels unfinished.
75
TV Guide
Ken Fox
perfectly serviceable costume drama.
75
USA Today
Claudia Puig
Princess Diana's antecedent, both genetically and figuratively, was a beautiful and glamorous duchess named Georgiana Spencer. Like her descendant, her charm and vivacity captivated England.
75
Entertainment Weekly
Lisa Schwarzbaum
Fiennes speaks with his body what the script cannot formulate about what it's like to be a man apart. The actor creates particulars of time, space, class, and personality with one crook of a finger, one twist of a wrist. I call that nobility of craft; he's the actors' prince.
75
Rolling Stone
Peter Travers
It's Knightley who makes The Duchess a royal treat.
70
The Hollywood Reporter
Kirk Honeycutt
Keira Knightley is a terrific choice to play the 18th century socialite.
70
Salon.com
Stephanie Zacharek
tThere's life at the center of The Duchess, in the form of Keira Knightley. She carries the weight of the movie around her effortlessly.
70
Newsweek
David Ansen
For a number of reasons The Duchess isn't all it could have been. It's fun, but falls short of fabulous.
67
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Paula Nechak
Provided you don't take it seriously, it makes for an addictively entertaining diversion that's as hard to stop watching as the books are to stop reading.
67
Portland Oregonian
Marc Mohan
Ultimately, though, it's unfortunate that the movie tries to make so many oblique comparisons to more modern tragedy (paparazzi with sketchbooks; yes, we get it!), since Georgiana's life seems fascinating enough on its own.
63
Miami Herald
Connie Ogle
Fans of period drama will find things to like about The Duchess; it's not as ludicrous as "The Other Boleyn Girl," for instance, and it's not overly long or ponderous.
63
Chicago Tribune
Tasha Robinson
Taken in isolation from the unsatisfying story, the performances are powerful--Knightley’s vivacious, wounded romantic does a great deal to carry the film on sheer personality, while Fiennes is a subtle master at projecting banked menace through his seeming detached ennui.
63
Boston Globe
Ty Burr
At a certain point, The Duchess stops attending to the topiary and becomes a women's melodrama instead.
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Rick Groen
As for true-love Charles, he would ascend to the Prime Minister's office, and then rise again to even greater heights: They named the tea after him. Indeed, that may be the smartest way to see this flick, curled up on your sofa with a cup of Earl Grey -- just make sure it's as decaffeinated as what you're watching.
60
New York Daily News
Elizabeth Weitzman
A rousing period drama with all the familiar trimmings: gorgeous costumes, palatial settings and romantic intrigue.
60
Variety
Justin Chang
A serviceable picture that offers all the sumptuous visual pleasures of a historical costume drama, yet little in the way of actual history.
60
NPR
Bob Mondello
Director Saul Dibb, presumably knowing that this is pretty standard stuff for a costume epic, occupies us not just with the usual visuals -- of his star drifting through exquisitely furnished estates, draped in rich silks and brocades -- but also with some intriguingly offbeat sights.
60
Washington Post
John Anderson
It's too bad there's not more substance to The Duchess, because there's lots of acting and, as is required of a Brit-styled period piece, lushness galore.
50
Baltimore Sun
Michael Sragow
The problem isn't the history that the filmmakers leave in, but how much they leave out.
50
Village Voice
Ella Taylor
As a tale of mature self-sacrifice, the movie would be almost unbearably moving were it not for Knightley's insubstantial performance, which allows her to be fatally upstaged by Ralph Fiennes.
50
ReelViews
James Berardinelli
It has impeccable production values but feels like a "Masterpiece Theater" production of a Harlequin romance novel.
42
Christian Science Monitor
Robert Koehler
A lumbering number that takes its identity as a costume drama quite literally.
40
Austin Chronicle
Kimberley Jones
It’s a curiously inert, workmanlike production: a whole lot of pomp and incircumstance.
40
Wall Street Journal
Joe Morgenstern
Instead of scintillation, the movie gives us a succession of discrete set pieces, as if the action takes place in rooms but not in the halls connecting them.
40
The New York Times
Manohla Dargis
An overstuffed, intellectually underbaked portrait of a poor little rich girl.
38
New York Post
Kyle Smith
Everything is predictable three scenes in advance, and it's all stale, stuck, stolid.
The average user rating for this movie is 8.1 (out of 10) based on 26 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
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