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Marie Antoinette, the beheaded Queen of France . . . because of her, you can today see Kirsten Dunst, the famous American actress, naked.
Kirsten Dunst plays the infamous Marie Antoinette and Jason Schwartzman plays Louis XVI in this film. The movie was written, directed and produced by Sofia Copola – who received an Academy award for writing Lost in Translation. Unfortunately, this movie is quite a bit different from Lost in Translation – and not in a good way. Lost in Translation at least had some very interesting characters. To the dismay of the audience, Marie Antoinette is more about showing off the elaborate costumes, set designs, shooting locations and scenery than it is about giving us an entertaining story or great acting. In fact, you’re well into the first half hour of the movie before you really hear any dialogue. The story is about the arranged marriage of Marie Antoinette to Louis XVI. Her primary obligation to him and to the country of France is to give him a son. While this takes some time, the movie shows her living life in complete luxury and how she gets caught up in the power she has from being royalty. That’s all interesting for about 3 minutes, but then becomes very wearisome for the audience. Fortunately though, with out any warning and at a place that really makes no sense, the movie just ends and you’re free to leave the theatre.
While Sophia’s debut Lost in Translation was indeed a masterpiece, Marie Antoinette is much like watching someone else’s home movies. The scenery is definitely striking and colorful, and the soundtrack is entertaining, but absolutely nothing interesting or exciting happens. Based on the trailers, it might possibly make a strong music video, but it fails miserably as a movie. As for the acting, Kirsten Dunst is adorable, but everyone’s performance is a little suspect at times. And, there are a few filmmaking gimmicks that very blatantly don’t work. Though it may very well earn an Oscar nod for costumes, Marie Antoinette is, nonetheless, fairly boring as a film.
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