Marie's gorgeous to behold

Rating: 7/10 (6 November 2006)

Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette takes a vivid look into the lavish life of the controversial queen. Shot on location in Versailles, the film, along with The Virgin Suicides and Lost in Translation is stated to be part of a trilogy of the director's movies concerning women feeling alone.
Plot has never been Coppola's strong suit, but should a minimalist approach work in a biopic? To an extent, it does. The film does not cover Marie Antoinette's entire life, but just the years she spent in Versailles. The film's main conflict resides in the necessity of Marie Antoinette (Kirsten Dunst) to produce an heir with Louis XVI (Jason Schwartzman). This is a meager plot to sustain a two-hour long movie, but Marie Antoinette really isn't about the trials and tribulations of France and extraneous character arcs, but about Marie's own personal feelings of being an outsider while living in Versailles.
The film successfully conveys her yearning for excitement beyond the confines of the royal court. Dunst gives an honest, respectable performance while Schwartzman gives a surprisingly excellent turn playing against type as the bloated, shy Louis XVI. However, the style and visual beauty of the film outweigh any of the performances. Costume designer, Milena Canonero, who has been producing magnificent work since the '70s in films such as Barry Lyndon and Chariots of Fire, creates a visual feast.
Coppola's direction is spot on. Her style shines through with the usage of pink, blue tints and modern music. The music, including songs by New Order, The Cure, Bow Wow Wow and The Strokes, helps a historical film connect with a contemporary audience. By using modern music, one could actually feel the rush Marie felt when sneaking out to a masquerade party. Another device utilized by Coppola was having the actors speak in their own accents, instead of struggling to sound French or Austrian. Where Coppola missed the mark, however, was in the writing. Her decision to sidestep the ultimate fate of Marie Antoinette could have been a great idea, but the ending of the film felt abrupt and incomplete. Coming straight off an Oscar win for her brilliant previous script, Lost in Translation, Coppola's screenplay for Marie Antoinette is disappointing.
Even without a perfect script, Coppola finds ways to create character and story without an utterance of dialogue. The simple switch of a portrait shows the death of a child, and the queen becomes aware of her fall in popularity when she applauds at an opera, but no one else joins in. Marie Antoinette had the possibility of being an outstanding film if it had been a reel shorter, but it was still a pleasure to watch.