“If you want to play in a man’s world, you’d better get ready to be fucked in the ass. Because we all look the same from behind.” Yes, that’s an actual line from Neil Marshall’s latest film Duchess.
Duchess starts off in the film’s third act as you see our titular heroine Scarlett Monaghan AKA “Duchess” (Charlotte Kirk) seemingly on a job that turns south quickly and we are treated to a brief fight scene, and then the voiceover kicks in almost saying “so you’re wondering how I got here” in a very Deadpool or Guy Richie-esque fashion. Then Duchess rewinds and the audience is treated to Scarlett’s superhero origin story.
Scarlett is a small-time pickpocket hustler, who just hits clubs and preys on easy marks for small amounts of money. She partners with her bestie and even has her own muscle from one of her male friends. Her hustle seems to be working for her. That all changes when she meets Robert (Philip Winchester) after trying to steal from him. Robert is intrigued by her and tells her that she’s better than where her current station in life is. Scarlett is charmed by Robert, but plays shy. It’s clear that Robert is connected somehow as he tracks her down (not in a stalker way, but quite close) and after helping her after she got in a jam, the two hit it off.
As Duchess continues, the two quickly get into the butterflies stage of dating, but soon enough, armed gunmen come after Robert and his friends Baraka (Hoji Fortuna) and Danny (Sean Pertwee) and after a shootout and brawl, he lets her into his world. Rob’s connections happen to be in the world of diamond smuggling, and it’s a very dangerous world. Now, of course after watching your boyfriend and his buddies gun down a bunch of assassins might send one person running away from a crazy situation that will almost certainly end in death, but Scarlett is now even more intrigued and grows even closer with him. She doesn’t even flinch when she observes his business partner remove a guy’s tongue from the middle of his neck, so at this point, she’s all in.
As Duchess continues, Scarlett gets quickly acclimated to endless cash, island mansions, and being around guys with guns, we all know that the shoe’s about to drop. Robert is betrayed by someone who wants him out of the way and after the betrayal (and murder), Scarlett is left for dead by Robert’s supposed partners. She picks herself up by her bootstraps, rechristens herself “Duchess” (the nickname Baraka gave her), and proceeds to morph into “Jane Wick.” She gathers whoever survived, recruits her former friends, and proceeds to go on an Archer-style rampage tour to get justice for her lover.
As simplistic a plot as it has, Duchess unfortunately fails to rise above even C-level territory. This is mostly due to the writing (written by director Neil Marshall as well as his fiancé and lead Charlotte Kirk) as well as the directing. It’s crazy that Marshall (who has directed The Descent, Doomsday, and such top-tier peak Game of Thrones episodes: “Blackwater” and “The Watchers on the Wall”) made a film with such uninspired action scenes. Some of the fight choreography in Duchess is laughably bad in its execution, it makes you wonder how the person who directed such awesome action in episodes on the small screen could direct this film.
Marshall cut his teeth in the horror genre, perhaps he should return to that as Duchess unfortunately doesn’t hit its mark. Having Scarlett’s narration throughout Duchess is an interesting choice and works for most of the movie, but it needed a rewrite or two as well as more interesting choreography and cinematography. After all, John Wick has the simplest plot ever, but the execution is why we love those films. There could be a good movie hidden in Duchess, but unfortunately, the film couldn’t get out of its own way.
Duchess is currently available On Demand.
