By

Colette

Keira’s best

Gabrielle Colette was a country girl who in 1893 married writer Henry (“Willy”) Gauthier-Villars (Dominic West) and began ghostwriting his novels, to great popular acclaim. She grew personally with each success, spreading out to become influential in theater and art, to the point where her eventual fight for recognition (shades of Glenn Close’s The Wife) led to her becoming a leader in the era’s nascent literary (she wrote “Gigi”), artistic and sexual revolutions. Keira Knightly tones down the mugging that for me often spoils her movies to make this origin-story period piece a rewarding sit. (111 min)