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.Read Full Review »
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.Read Full Review »
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.Read Full Review »
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.Read Full Review »
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.Read Full Review »
75
Philadelphia Inquirer: Carrie Rickey
While I much liked The Duchess, this portrait feels unfinished.Read Full Review »
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.Read Full Review »
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.Read Full Review »
63
Boston Globe: Ty Burr
At a certain point, The Duchess stops attending to the topiary and becomes a women's melodrama instead.Read Full Review »
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