‘The Duchess’: Knightley is pretty, but ‘The Duchess’ is vacant

Published 6:09 pm Thursday, September 25, 2008

When the title character of “The Duchess” speaks her full name, the filmmakers are dearly hoping you will note the word “Spencer” mixed in there. Yes, this is an ancestor of Diana Spencer, the simple girl (well, privileged member of royalty) who became the Princess of Wales.

Georgiana Spencer, played by Keira Knightley, was born just about 200 years before her relative, in 1757. Despite the difference in the eras, the difficulties of royal marriage seem to be approximately the same.

Georgiana is drafted into wedding the Duke of Devonshire (Ralph Fiennes), a man for whom the term “cold fish” would be too generous. She’s happy about it, at first, but the duke is only interested in her as a vehicle for his male heirs.

Two daughters later, the duke’s patience is thin. Only Georgiana’s popularity — as clotheshorse and dinner-party charmer — make her worth keeping around.

This point is a potentially promising one, but the film makes us take it on faith. Except for one brief patch of witty repartee, and a series of fascinatingly constructed dresses, there’s little actual evidence of the duchess’ supposed brilliance. Other people talk about it a lot, though, which is meant to convince us.

After some early hints that “The Duchess” might score a few political points, the film shifts to the costume genre’s bread and butter (all right, crumpets and butter): sexual skullduggery, lavish houses and brooding shots of the English countryside.

I like eye candy as much as the next person, and “The Duchess” is relatively painless when it comes to such things. The lush music by Rachel Portman helps, too.

But it seemed to evaporate as soon as the credits rolled. Director Saul Dibb and a team of writers have ended up with a soft picture, despite a few scenes designed to startle devotees of the powdered-wig movie.

Keira Knightley, stubbornly modern despite her many period roles, doesn’t get much chance to act within her wigs and corsets. Fiennes is focused, and he has one glorious moment: his reaction when his wife tells him that women are limited in their self-expression to the clothes they wear — you can see from the vacant look on his face that it has never, ever occurred to him that women would want or need to “express” themselves.

Dominic Cooper (late of “Mamma Mia!”) plays the duchess’ wet-eyed true love, and Hayley Atwell (impressive in “Brideshead Revisited”) her best friend. Charlotte Rampling plays Georgiana’s mother, and her presence is scheming enough to make you wonder whether you shouldn’t really be watching a movie about her.