surprisingly disappointing.

Rating: 5/10 (22 November 2007)

SPOILERS:
I was really disappointed in this movie and I read some of the reviews and it appears I am not the only one. While I would not rate this a 1 or a 2, or even say it was bad or horrible, it WAS a major disappointment as well as one of the more baffling movies I have seen in awhile. At times it almost seems rather funnily disappointing, as if it was done deliberately. While that's obviously not the case,(who sets out to make a disappointing film ON PURPOSE?), I was left at the end not just disappointed but completely weirded out.
Where to begin? Well.....first is the lack of storyline development. There were many aspects of the movie that were interesting but it seems like they were developed in a way as to make them as uninteresting as possible. I was actually very interested in the marriage of Marie Antoinette and thought that the performers' did a good job. But just when the story was at it's most interesting..after all the time spent(a lot) on this plot line..it is just done. And in a "blink and you might miss it" kind of way. It is beyond disappointing, it is really really annoying.
Add to that, the lack of dialog. And what little dialog there is,can be quite mundane at times..and much of it is kind of muted. Asia Argento's character provides some brightness and drama until..HELLO!..She is written out of the movie very abruptly. In fact a lot that happen in this movie is abrupt. That is the perfect word to describe this movie. Whether it is writing various characters' out of the script, resolving long plot lines in the blink of an eye, or ending on an unusually rosy, Abrupt(yes-there's that word again) light, it seems Marie Antoinette is all things abrupt.
Except of coarse, for the food. I must not forget to mention that as the long, drawn out(extremely drawn out) scenes of brightly colored food, delicious treats and people chewing, did seem in fact to be a major focus of the movie and if some of the important story lines and characters, were shown in half as much detail as the glowingly beautiful arrays of goodies this probably would have been a halfway decent movie. Alas that was not to be.
Now for the good. I loved the photography. the brightly colored hues did not just pertain to the food but to the whole picture. If there had been some depth and substance to the film it really could have been great. The visual style was wonderful but very little other stuff was.I did however appreciate the use of music and though many don't like current music being used in a period piece, I sometimes do and just thought the song selections fit here.
I do disagree however with people who did not think Dunst did a good job. I think she did. She is not one of my favorite actresses either. But she brought a sweetness and lovable mischievousness to the role and by the abrupt end, was able to have introduced an element of sober solemnity. I would rate her performance as one of the highlights of this movie.
My vote ultimately is a 5 of 10. It isn't horrible but is sure a long way from being good and is a major disappointment.