| Lowest Recommended Age: | High School |
| Profanity: | Some strong language |
| Nudity/Sex: | Sexual references and situations including adultery, questions of paternity, rape |
| Alcohol/Drugs: | Drinking, including getting drunk to deal with stress |
| Violence/Scariness: | Rape |
| Diversity Issues: | A theme of the movie |
| Movie Release Date: | September 26, 2008 |
Kiera Knightly plays 18th century aristocrat Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire in this muddled but eye-filling saga of an ancestor of Diana, Princess of Wales, who shared her status as a fashion icon, heartbroken wife of a man in love with someone else, and object of intense public fascination.
Georgiana was still a teenager when she was told that one of the most sought-after catches in England wanted to marry her. Silly girl, she thought it meant he loved her. But the Duke thought of marriage as something between a political alliance and animal husbandry. All he cared about was her ability to produce a male heir. The property law of the time depended on continuing the male line (as readers of Pride and Prejudice well know). And, as an affecting scene near the end shows, the Duke (Ralph Fiennes) is as constricted by the conventions of the era as she is.
This creates the opportunity for a soap opera in period clothes, with mutual adulteries and children born to other partners. Georgiana (known as “G”) also struggles with the betrayal of her closest friend (“Brideshead Revisted’s” Hayley Atwell) and the agonizing choice between her great love, a politician (“Mamma Mia’s” Dominic Cooper), or her children with the Duke.
It never quite comes together because G’s life was too big and varied to fit on screen. She was a fashion icon and an influential figure in politics. She was a devoted mother and an “all for love and the world well lost” libertine. She was strong and weak, intelligent and foolish, loyal and disloyal, practical and a dreamer. Though Knightly is game, the film falters in pomp and loses her under the feathers and jewels.
posted September 28, 2008 at 8:22 pm
I saw Nights in Rodanthe this afternoon. Diane Lanes character’s grief over the loss of Richard Gere’s character was so deep that it brought me back to that place 24 years ago when i lost my husband. I was amazed to find that the depth of this characters grief was as mine was so many years ago. . i guess it’s really the idea that it brought it back and since this is the weekend of our wedding anniversary made it even more amazing.
I am glad Diane Lane made this movie and was able to show the grief that is so rarely shone in movies. She did an excellent job.
I wish i could tell her that.
posted September 28, 2008 at 9:39 pm
Donna, thank you so much for the wonderful gift of your response to this film. I am so glad you were moved by it and I agree that Diane Lane’s performance was a quiet masterpiece. My thoughts are with you.