Human desire hasn't changed much in 300 years, it would seem.

In The Duchess, Keira Knightley portrays Georgiana Spencer, a woman who changed the course of British political history but continued to be almost powerless in her own household.

In her lifetime, Georgiana, the Duchess of Devonshire, was very much like a contemporary celebrity -- she was adored by the people, she was politically influential, and she was followed, imitated, quoted and painted everywhere she went.

Court artists, the 18th century equivalent to the paparazzi, sketched her every move. She could have anything she wanted, except, it would seem, a life with the man she loved.

The Duchess is a lavish costume epic based on the biography by Amanda Foreman.

The film puts the spotlight on a specific portion of Georgiana's life.

She is a teenager when the story opens in 1774, and she appears delighted when her mother (Charlotte Rampling) announces that a match has been made for her with the Duke of Devonshire. Their marriage unites two very powerful families.

The Duke (Ralph Fiennes) is a quiet, deeply reserved man, but Georgiana believes she can mine his emotions and create a real relationship with him. She is quite wrong.

The Duke is keen on having a male heir, and is otherwise not that interested in his young wife.

He's not that interested in anything, really, and Georgiana is surprised to find that within his dull exterior there beats a heart of clay.

She raises his illegitimate daughter and turns a blind eye to his many affairs. When her own best friend becomes the Duke's mistress, however, Georgiana is most unhappy.

She takes a lover of her own in Charles Grey (Dominic Cooper), the future Prime Minister. Their love for one another seems quite sincere, but that can't stop all hell from breaking loose in Georgiana's life.

Much has been made of Keira Knightley's performance in The Duchess, and rightly so.

She is terrific in this role. All the emotional highs and lows of the story are conveyed through her character-- and across her face, for that matter -- and Knightley never puts a foot wrong.

Just as impressive is Fiennes as the low-affect Duke, his performance a model of ennui and overall disappointment, with just a hint of aristocratic irritation.

The Duchess is a love story, a human drama and a big history lesson; it's fascinating to see the similarities between Georgiana's era and contemporary times.

The wigs and the dresses in her day point to the same general excess one sees in current fashion, and there is little to distinguish her social or political environment from those of today. The biggest 'then and now' difference, of course, was Georgiana's status in life as little more than her husband's property, but four years of Sarah Palin and her ilk could reverse all that in a jiffy.

Part of The Duchess was filmed at Chatsworth House, where the real-life Georgiana and her Duke, William Cavendish, sometimes lived.

The movie is wonderful to look at, full of extraordinary period detail and complicated costumes, and hugely entertaining.

Smart and pretty, in other words.

(This film is rated 14-A)
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