‘Duchess’ VOD Review
Stars: Charlotte Kirk, Phillip Winchester, Stephanie Beacham, Colm Meany, Sean Pertwee | Written and Directed by Neil Marshall
A young crook known as Duchess (Charlotte Kirk) gets involved with the nefarious Robert (Phillip Winchester) and the underworld of diamond trafficking. Her wrong turns take her halfway across the world, and she ends up being left for dead when a deal quickly goes wrong. Duchess is quick to try and seek retribution, and that means taking everyone on.
The good thing — “thing,” not “things” — about Duchess is even just by watching the trailer, seeing a poster, or reading the cast list, you know exactly what type of movie you’re going to get. Unfortunately, that type is fairly unsavoury. Forget any Guy Ritchie film, Fight Club, or Layer Cake, this time, it’s never been a worse thing to be British. A smorgasbord of accents from across the Western Hemisphere, the Brits in our cast feel jarringly out of place in a world that isn’t really made for them. Neil Marshall might be known for the genre, but he’s got a lot to answer for here.
If we’re taking a rose-tinted view of Duchess, we’d say it’s neither Marshall’s best nor worst effort. Squint and there might be some parts of the movie that actually work. Stripping away any narrative or technical structure, the film’s fight sequences definitely pass muster. Eye-catching and gory in a way that can’t tear your vision away from the screen, these isolated incidents of total chaos are almost enough reason to continue watching. However, that’s before we consider everything else.
Looking at Duchess as a whole, things aren’t as romantic. The script is incredibly stiff at best, almost written as if somebody had never heard language — let alone English — spoken before production. Couple that with the way British accents scratch your brain in all the wrong ways, it’s a lot to grapple with. We’re a British team, and the inclusion of our great nation is never anything to scoff at or stereotype. It almost defies logic why it doesn’t really work here, but most likely comes down to production… and performance.
If you’re UK-based, you probably last remember cast members like Stephanie Beacham from their brief stint in the soaps many moons ago, and Duchess almost feels like another version of that. Charlie is a rip-off of a Jackie Collins novel, with Duchess herself bordering on an Alex Kingston-esque Essex gangster. It’s all very jumbled, which isn’t helped by the overall feel of the movie. Let’s be clear — films with smaller budgets should never be lambasted in any way, and our cultural landscape is all the richer for them. However, it’s also true that the film doesn’t benefit from its production in this instance.
If you combine all of these things together, we’re left with an end product that feels uninspired and half-hearted, with the fact that it fails to master basic elements of filmmaking drawing an unnecessary light to what it’s lacking in the bigger picture.
** 2/5
Duchess is available on digital platforms now.
