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Big budget but Keira's Duchess divides critics
Amar Singh, Evening Standard4 Sep 2008
Keira Knightley's appearance at the London premiere of her new film The Duchess added glamour to the film's £2 million publicity campaign but the big budget tale of an 18th century aristocrat who marries against her will is being met with a lukewarm critical response.
The 23-year-old actress plays the lead role in the story of Georgiana Cavendish, an ancestor of Princess Diana who marries the Duke of Devonshire. Trapped in a loveless marriage she causes a scandal by taking a lover.
Marketing executives have spent millions on trailers likening Georgiana to Diana - a move which was criticised by Knightley and the film's writer. When early details emerged of the period melodrama, directed by Saul Dibbs, it was earmarked as possible Oscar-winning material but early reviews suggest not.
Financial Times critic Martin Hoyle described the film as "monumental froth" adding that "Knightley gives us the young naive virgin bride and sweet young idealist, but as in Atonement, fails to suggest any development, change or depth".
In the Hollywood Reporter, Kirk Honeycutt writes: "The Duchess will satisfy those who enjoy costume dramas but not reach much beyond that audience." He says Dibbs's direction is "sturdy but uninspired".
The Evening Standard's Charlotte O'Sullivan today says the film is "wonderfully toxic stuff" and Knightley puts us "right inside the drama". But she also says it briefly "lurches into farce".
The trailer shows a clip of Diana with the words: "The two were related by ancestry and united by destiny.".But Knightley said in a recent interview: "I am Georgiana. I am not Diana. The film is not about Diana."
The film's writer, Amanda Foreman, said: "The marketing people probably thought the only way they could get the young popcorn-eating brigade to see this film was if they made some comparison with Diana. But they did not need to and should not have done it."
