"Please put out her grace's hair"

What I know going in:

I've actually seen most of this movie before, but I don't remember much. I remember that it takes place in the late 1700s and that Keira Knightley's character has an affair that causes a bunch of problems.

Why I'm watching:

Most recent film to win an award (Costume Design) that I haven't seen.

The Duchess (2008)

Noms: Art Direction and Costume Design

Win: Costume Design

It's a good damn thing that the costumes were fantastic - it's a huge aspect of the main character (Georgiana/Keira Knightley)  that she has amazing clothes and sense of style. She's a designer herself. Some of the outfits when she appropriates aspects of men's clothing are especially awesome. The clothes show her strength of character and that she challenges the traditional gender roles of Georgian England. The conversation where she explains why women's clothes are more complicated that men's is one of the best parts of the entire movie. On a different note, it's too bad for this film that hair-styling wasn't added to the make-up category until a few years ago. With the over the top wigs, they might have scored a third nomination.

Completely forgot that this has the American Revolution as a historical backdrop. It's not a huge deal, but it's interesting to see what was happening on the other side of the pond during the Revolution. I wish the political climate were more present throughout, unsurprisingly for me, but I concede that is not the point of the piece. 

Instead, her absolutely awful marriage is. UGH! Ralph Fiennes is so despicable in this. He plays the least sympathetic or likable character that I've ever seen him play. And this is the man who plays Voldemort in Harry Potter and the villain in Schindler's List. To me, this is still worse. He has no redeeming qualities or even scenes that make me understand where he's coming from. He marries a woman and immediately treats her like shit and has multiple affairs. Then she has the chutzpah to challenge him, and he makes her life even worse. "I don't make deals. Why would I? I'm in charge of it all." Oh yeah, he also forces her to raise on of his bastard children as her own. What a complete asshole. There are plenty of terrible people peppered throughout Georgiana's life. Her best friend fucks her husband. Her mom is a monster. Etc.

My roommate joined me for the last 20 minutes, and made the rest even more entertaining. He was a little over-tired and started commenting on the situations of the film as if he were on Jerry Springer. Needless to say: hysterical. Also oddly apt. 

In a lot of ways, I was reminded of another Keira Knightley movie while watching this: Anna Karenina. Costume drama about a society woman in a loveless marriage who has a dalliance with a young, exciting man of lower birth. Bad shit happens. I found Georgiana to be much more relatable, though whether that's the character or the circumstance, I don't know. Anna Karenina was more interesting in it's presentation though.

Surprise appearance: Georgiana's lover is played by the young romantic lead in Mamma Mia! (among other things). Even more surprising was the actress who plays Georgiana's twisted mother was on the last season of "Dexter" as a completely different, if equally demented, mother (Dr. Vogel).