‘The Duchess’ scores with sudsy costume drama

In theaters

THE DUCHESS, directed by Saul Dibb, written by Dibb, Jeffrey Hatcher and Anders Thomas Jensen, 105 minutes, rated PG-13.

The new Saul Dibb movie, “The Duchess,” opens in 1757 with Georgiana Spencer (Keira Knightley) tossing herself about with great gales of giggles and gaiety on the great lawn of a greater estate.

While she’s having a gas with some male and female friends, high above her in that estate is her formidable mother, Lady Spencer (Charlotte Rampling), who is busy navigating decisions about Georgiana’s life that will turn it into one corseted soap opera.

Wigs will burn in this movie (literally), fine wine will put out the fire (literally), but as for the smoke left in its wake, let’s just say its stink will linger awhile longer.

The complication is this: It appears as if the cold, socially stunted Duke of Devonshire (Ralph Fiennes) has designs on young Georgiana’s womb; he wants to fill it with the makings of a male heir. Since he can’t do so without first marrying Georgiana, papers are drawn up, promises are made that essentially come down to Georgiana being a good brood mare, and approvals are made by both families to allow the wedding to take place.

It’s only after her fate has been sealed by others that Georgiana is handed her sentence by her beaming mother. She will become the Duchess of Devonshire, to which Georgiana initially cheers. The gowns! The jewels! The status! The love of the people!

The lesbian sex? The trysts? The duke’s live-in lover, Lady Elizabeth Foster (Hayley Atwell)? Georgiana’s “secret” affair with her own lover, Charles Gray (Dominic Cooper)?

Dibb based his movie on a script he co-wrote with Jeffrey Hatcher and Anders Thomas Jensen from Amanda Foreman’s biography, “Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire,” and in true soap fashion, he doesn’t waste a moment in mounting all sorts of difficulties for Georgiana to overcome, only one of which will be explored here. The duchess produces her share of children, true, but all are girls. Several miscarriages follow, along with two stillborn sons. A male heir does come late in the game, but only after the duke rapes her. And what’s Georgiana to make of her relationship then?

For many reasons, Georgiana pointedly recalls that other Spencer, Diana, whose life the movie takes great pains to parallel, and for good reason. Doing so, after all, makes the 16th century seem almost current and relevant, but the good news is that this isn’t so much a distraction as it is a curiosity. Since Knightley’s performance is galvanizing – she can be a political force in one scene, a victim in another, a fashion icon the next – those parallels don’t overcome the movie so much as they complement it.

Across the board, the cast is as fine as the attention paid to the Academy Award-worthy set and costume design, which is as lovely as the duke and duchess’s relationship is ugly. The downside, of course, is that no matter how tense it becomes between them, class rules above all else, so at some point, if they are to go on, a truce must be in the offing. It’s the getting there that makes “The Duchess” one of the better costume dramas to come along in a while.

Grade: B+

On DVD

4 MONTHS, 3 WEEKS AND 2 DAYS, written and directed by Cristian Mangiu, 113 minutes, not rated. In Romanian with English subtitles.

Cristian Mangiu’s “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days” is set in 1987 Romania toward the end of Nicolae Ceausescu’s tyrannical rule.

The time in which the film is set is significant for several reasons, chiefly because it was Ceausescu, long before his Christmas Day execution in 1989, who reversed Romania’s stand on abortion, making the procedure illegal and punishable (with few exceptions) whereas beforehand, women had the right to choose.

Ceausescu criminalized abortion upon his ascension to power in 1966. Twenty-one years later, in 1987, his corrupt dictatorship had turned Romania into a country of chaos, poverty and turmoil, so much so that Romania became a country of outlaws turning to the black market to survive. Cigarettes were a popular choice. So were abortions.

It’s in this atmosphere of fear and risk that “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days” takes place. The movie opens in a crowded college dormitory with roommates Otilia (Anamaria Marinca) and Gabita (Laura Vasiliu) packing for some time away. On the sly, they buy cigarettes, soap and other toiletries. Though the film’s title is a giveaway, it’s only gradually that we learn they’re preparing for Gabita’s abortion.

Gabita is lucky to have Otilia for a friend. Whereas Gabita is flighty and unfocused, Otilia is a force, balancing in one harrowing day Gabita’s sketchy abortion and the birthday party being thrown for her boyfriend’s mother across town. The abortion comes first, though it nearly doesn’t go off because Gabita failed to secure a room at the hotel chosen by Mr. Bebe (Vlad Ivanov), the gruff man they hired to perform the abortion.

While Bebe’s surname proves that Mangiu isn’t without a dark sense of humor, that’s where the humor ends. Bebe is a brute who uses his power over the situation to his benefit in ways that turn this drama into part tragedy and part thriller, particularly when he learns that Gabita lied to him about how far along she was. There’s a price to be paid for that lie, and Bebe is determined to exact it from each woman.

Throughout this excellent movie, it’s as if a camera is nowhere near the actors – the performances are that good, that natural and masterful. Helping to that end is the dialogue, which never seems scripted. Every corner of this movie speaks to authenticity, which helps it to join “Persepolis” and “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” in being among last year’s best foreign-language films.

Grade: A

WeekinRewind.com is the site for Bangor Daily News film critic Christopher Smith’s blog, DVD giveaways and archive of movie reviews. Smith’s reviews appear Mondays, Fridays and weekends in Lifestyle, as well as on bangordailynews.com. He may be reached at Christopher@weekinrewind.com.