Faaabulous!

Rating: 10/10 (8 August 2007)

Love love love this movie!!! Besides the fun raucous energy of the 80's soundtrack and the prevalence of 'macarons,' which brought about a craving for LaDuree, of course, the little gems of lavender Converse high-tops in the Shoes and Cake scene delighted me to no end.
Kirsten and Jason accurately portray the anxieties of being so young and forced into marriage. She depicts perfectly a 15 yr old's fear of separation when her pup Mops is taken from her at the Handover Ceremony, and then her frustration and confusion at the physical and emotional distance of her new husband at the dining table when she is in the Strawberries dress and the pink fur-trim costume.
Jason even has the voice of someone who prefers to keep to himself and who is a homebody, but after a while their characters become friendly and his desire to please her is evident. For example, the bedroom scene when he is reading the book about the wooden locks in Egypt and she is eating her candy shows they have reached mutual contentment to be in one another's lives but to keep their separate passions. Then the scene at the Parisian Opera where she causes all to clap, he smiles sideways at her. After this he calls her 'My dear' and 'My sweet' and wears the biggest smile when his young wife is jumping about and most happy. In the scene when he announces to her that she's birthed a Dauphin, their mutual joy couldn't have been better acted out by anyone in the business.
Hats off to Sofia for a moment that sprung tears to my eyes. During the coronation scene I heard windchimes, thinking it an interesting background noise. All of a sudden the music breaks into the Cure's Plainsong as the scene changes to the King and Queen prancing down an exquisitely plush navy velvet staircase. The music alone was enough to make the tears come - one of my fave songs I'd forgotten about - but the clothing in soft golds and ivories against the navy velvet was SO beautiful, and of course all this set against the typical Parisian grey sky... perfection.
I thank all involved with this film. It has already provided weeks worth of entertainment for me and I can't wait to watch it again. Vive la France!!