
After the ’90s when Tarantino become an icon, so many people tried to replicate his approach but failed miserably. I guess it’s true that it is not easy being Tarantino in today’s world. Just like most of those wannabe who used to idolize Tarantino’s work in ‘Pulp Fiction’ Neil Marshall’s ‘Duchess’ has quite a resemblance to the works Mon Ritchie’s debut international film Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels, except that it was not nearly as better. With broken needle drops, name-calling freeze frames, over-narrated context, and a storyline about interrelated criminal Duchess badly wants to be a Ritchie film, they might as well have given him co-credit for writing it. Although, that is something he would probably want to avoid. ‘Atrocious’ would have been a more suitable title.
Charlotte Kirk is as dull as a washed-out sponge while playing Scarlett Monaghan, a woman getting all the attention from a charming Robert McNaughton (Philip Winchester) while having a boring boyfriend at a club one night. Robert and Scarlett hit it off almost immediately, so it doesn’t take long before Mr. Wrong is out of the picture, and the pair engage in an affair that turns hot until Scarlett learns how Robert earns his income. He deals huge stones which places him in the underbelly of society and requires him to be backed by some criminals which include his loyal allies Danny (Sean Pertwee) and Baraka (Hoji Fortuna). Colin Egglesfield plays a rival over Robert Scarlett while Stephanie Beacham has to recite some of the most terrible lines in the film as a jewelry crime queen.
Skimming through the storyline, Scarlett faces action and blood-shed drama over what she expected to be just casual flirtations from a sharp fashionable man who caught her attention that night. Kirk Marshall and Simon Farr’s screenplay seems a Guy Ritchie-inspired story retelling of “Kill Bill” with a female cast who is out for revenge because people judging her was a big mistake. They somehow look lost behind the screenplay though. It’s unlikely that Kirk would be convincing enough to engage in any action (or a role or a line or all of them) and that’s potentially why Marshall uses aggressive tactics attempting to elevate his monotonous film. A few examples, a heated dole is stabbed into the penis of a subject under extreme duress. Next, oil is set into one man and lit on fire. It’s all like a melange of torture and ‘snatch…’ for lack of better words, no fun.
Adding to the list of problems is just how awful the plotting and tone in ‘Duchess’ is, as it much resembles a parody of Ritchie rather than an ode. And this ‘ode’ is also extremely one-sided it goes on for almost two hours. Yes, even though it is almost two hours long, I assure you this film feels like it is four hours long. And when it ends with the implication of a sequel, it can be seen as more of a threat than a promise.
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