Pretty and Vacuous

Rating: 2/10 (28 October 2006)

The first hour or so of Marie Antoinette seemed promising. The cinematography was beautiful, Kirsten Dunst a sympathetic lead, and the period setting worked well. But then the movie dragged on without apparent purpose. The garden sequences signaled a whole long boring second half to the movie. Coppola seemed to be so concerned with pretty shots that she forget to keep a plot going. She even managed to spoil Dunst's likable Marie Antoinette by the end of the movie, which was profoundly disappointing in itself. The movie would be much better if it were about 45 minutes shorter. With twenty minutes to go, I found myself checking the time on my phone to see how much more I would have to sit through. I figured, "there is no way this can all be wrapped up in the two hours the movies is listed at". But I was wrong--Coppola decided that wrapping up the movie was contrary to her goal of an empty pretty film, and she simply put in credits after a final scene. Resolution? Of course not. Satisfaction with the film? No way.