Beautiful scenes wasted on bad composition

Rating: 3/10 (12 November 2006)

Loved parts of the movie, disliked other, left feeling very unsatisfied. Adored the beautiful, lush scenes, which were matched by some sublime acting. The landscape panoramas and interior scenes were equally stunning. Kristen Dunn was great, as was Jason Schwartzman as Louis XVI and Asia Argento as Madame du Barry. Rip Torn as Louis XV was admirable in most scenes, but gave more of a performance fitting for TV than the big screen (a bit too deliberate). I didn't like the overall non-story telling tone of the movie. Also disliked the soundtrack, some of the songs were impressive but few added to the overall composition (it mostly felt like I was listening to someone's CD collection that that I didn't really care for). Hated the ending, what a letdown! Perhaps I was expecting too much after tremendously enjoying Lost in Translation.