Keira Knightley, left, plays the poised, fashionable 18th-century Duchess of Devonshire. Hayley Atwell plays her friend Lady Bess.

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She's a formidable political force with commanding beauty, impeccable fashion sense and an alluring penchant for tomboyish hobbies.

Not Sarah Palin or Hillary Clinton. We're talking Georgiana, the 18th-century Duchess of Devonshire. In "The Duchess," she's played by Keira Knightley, who matches the poise and depth of her Oscar-nominated performance in "Pride & Prejudice" (2005).

Married to the duke at age 17, Georgiana had a flair for drawing attention. She campaigned for fellow Whigs, dreaming of universal suffrage. A devoted mother, Georgiana's fashions sparked trends and her gambling habit made her relatable. She gritted her teeth through an unhappy marriage with a cheating spouse in order to stick with her children and maintain her family's reputation. Someone says of Georgiana that every man in England is in love with her, save for her husband.

Working from a book by Amanda Foreman, director Saul Dibb avoids the stuffiness and overacting that plague many period dramas. He tells a brisk, relevant story that nails its historical bullet points while infusing them with pathos. Dibb doesn't aim to pigeonhole Georgiana as a figure to revere or pity, but crafts her as a person of depth.

The stubborn, calculating duke (Ralph Fiennes) doesn't benefit from similar treatment. His sole purpose for existence seems to be to make Georgiana's life as difficult as possible. Granted, it's not as though the duke sees Georgiana as his adversary. To him she's just an annoyance that stands in the way of his philandering and ambitions. He must put up with Georgiana because she's the lone conduit for producing a legitimate male heir.

Georgiana has to make her own way through the labyrinthine social circles. Her husband is certainly no support, and her mother (Charlotte Rampling) shares the duke's mind-set of maintaining the mirage of propriety above all else. Just when it seems that the world has cut Georgiana a break by pairing her with a soul mate, Lady Bess (Hayley Atwell) — a divorcée who stays with her and the duke — Georgiana walks by Bess' room to hear her husband's familiar moaning.

Other than her children, Georgiana's one solace is her lover, Charles Grey (Dominic Cooper), a politician and friend who, in brief, conspiratorial meetings, shows her the intimacy she never found in marriage.

Thanks mostly to Knightley and Dibb, "The Duchess" hums with the rhythms of some of the better Merchant Ivory films. It may not have much been fun to have lived Georgiana's trials, but it sure is engaging to watch her take them on.