I prefer the 1938 version

Rating: 7/10 (9 November 2007)

The praise lavished on this film by some critics mystifies me. There is no reason (other than enriching a studio's coffers) to do a new version of a well-known historic episode unless the new version adds something new and previously unknown. This film decidedly does not. It obviously attempts to attract a younger audience with its annoying use of rock music on the soundtrack and its inclusion of a pair of modern sneakers amid a pile of period shoes. Things like this worked for Baz Luhrmann in "Moulin Rouge," but they don't work here. The 1938 film of the same name is much better, if only because the great Robert Morley is perfectly cast as Louis XVI, capturing perfectly his dunciness and overall arrested development. Here that part is woodenly played by a clueless Jason Schwartzman, looking like a young Stanley Tucci. Altogether, this film is a bore and a wasted effort. Oh well, at least I enjoyed looking at brief glimpses of Kirsten's bare butt (if it was really hers and not that of a body double).