Stick to what you know....

Rating: 2/10 (5 October 2006)

My response to this film falls with all those who are observing what a fundamentally weak piece of work it is. Obviously some enjoy it for their various reasons, but I have to agree with many others that this film is poorly done in many ways and on many levels: pacing and narrative are incredibly weak, the music and visuals are annoying (to me), and the historical angle is woefully bad. Poor Kirsten Dunst, to have soldiered through her role in such a disaster! It seems to be me that the film demonstrates that filmmakers only really make films about what they know (not an original conclusion, but this film seems a good demonstration of the general principle). After succeeding with Lost in Translation, clearly Ms. Coppola has a good grasp on subject matter involving rich yuppies living in privileged circumstances in the Reagan-Bush era. Here, I think, she has tried to project this kind of subject matter back onto the late eighteenth century, but, alas, she knows nothing about the late eighteenth century, or the French Revolution, etc. She should have picked subject matter she could get a better grasp on.
I hope she's able to recover from this one and follow it with something successful.