What a waste of time

Rating: 2/10 (30 September 2007)

I wanted to see Marie Antionette ever since I learned it was being made and Kirsten Dunst was starring, and being a broke college student, I just now gained my opportunity and I have to say that I don't think I've ever been as disappointed in a movie.
There are only 3 short bits of dialogue that further the story in the first 29 minutes. Those 29 minute can be summed up in 3 sentences. Fance and Ausria want to be allies, so Marie Antionette is to be married to the Dauphin. She travels to France and meets her fiancé and his grandfather Louis XV - who makes a historical comment about her breasts. She and the Dauphin are married and nothing happens on their wedding night. There's the first half hour of the movie minus the fluff of explaining French Court protocol.
Oh and RIP TORN as Louis XV!?!?! WHAT was she thinking? Don't get me wrong, it's not that I dislike Rip Torn, but in a costume drama? As a /king/? What a terrible choice.
I'm not going into the music anymore than to say - if you're going to use rock music for a period piece, at least use it through the /whole/ movie. Don't use classical sounding (if not period accurate) music for the first 45 minutes (give or take) then use distracting 80s rock for 20 minutes and go back to the classical for the rest of it.
So after wasting 2 hours of my life she doesn't even /finish/ the story! Just a final shot of the royal bedchamber in careful ruin (so they didn't do any actual damage to the room, only the furniture they brought in). What /was/ that shot about anyway? Is that how Sofia Coppola shows that the woman she wasted my time over died a terrible death, along with her husband and children? The only redeemable characteristics were Dunst's and (occasionally) Schartzman's performances.
It's unfortunate that once a story has been done, it usually doesn't get re-told for many many years. This was such a waste of a story that has the potential to be a good film. Not to mention what it must take to be able to film in Versailles - that's not likely to be done again for a long time.
This movie reminded me of whipped cream - lots of pretty fluff to look at, but no real substance.