entertaining, beautifully-photographed yet modernized life of Marie Antoinette

Rating: Null/10 (13 February 2007)

First, what may seem like criticisms are simply my attempt to convey the flavor of this movie. It is the story of the life of Marie Antoinette, a movie (based upon a book by another author named in the credits) written and directed in the flair of Sofia Coppola, and colored by the persona of actress Kirsten Dunst.
The movie is definitely not much of a historical biography. Kirsten Dunst's character is portrayed with a rather light-hearted modern-day post-20th-Century personality and mindset. Various liberties with historical accuracies abound. Yet, if you enjoy Kirsten Dunst, then you will probably love the movie.
The soundtrack features plenty of current-day songs, thus further modernizing the tenor of the movie. However, all of the modernizing which is done actually helps modern-mindset viewers to identify with the plight of young Marie Antoinette, forced into an arranged marriage to the heir of the Throne of France at age 14, with the pressure put upon her of uniting and saving the political union of France and Austria.
The movie is definitely worth the watch, and highly entertaining. The ending falls flat, and abruptly so, unfortunately failing to close the book with the true outcome and ending of Marie Antoinette's life.
If there is a message which the movie seems to convey, it is the awkward stress of an arranged marriage put upon the young husband and wife, aged 15 and 14, and their unprepared rise to King and Queen of France while still in their teen's. The movie accurately conveys the resulting problems however-- Marie's excessive frivolities and extravagances while the people's poverty increased-- their taxes burdened by young husband King Louis XVI's decision to raise money in order to fund the American struggle for independence from England. Louis' lack of perspective regarding the needs of his own people, added to by Marie's extravagant spending, ultimately led to their demise.