Dunst checks in as the Queen

Rating: 5/10 (5 September 2019)

I think Sofia Coppola aimed to make a brash fun historical drama such as Amadeus. She lacks the skills of writer Peter Shaffer who wrote Amadeus first as a stage play. She also lacks the audacity of Baz Luhrmann who bought a different visual spin to his modern interpretation of Romeo & Juliet.
Marie Antoinette (Kirsten Dunst) is a young woman from the powerful Austrian Hapsburg dynasty who through marriage formed alliances with its European neighbours. She married the Dauphin of France, the future Louis XVI (Jason Schwartzman) and they live in the extravagant Palace of Versailles.
Marie is first inexperienced with the ways of the world and the marriage is not consummated for a long time. The reasons because her husband does not engage in having sex with her. Marie is under pressure to produce a heir.
Over time, her husband becomes King of France, she does have children and becomes known for grand parties and lavish spending on clothes.
When revolutionary fever hits France, the royal family are at risk.
The film is gorgeously photographed, has wonderful costumes and exquisite art direction. You can see the money spent on the screen.
It has a modern take, such as contemporary music and it does feel like those high school rom coms transplanted to historical France. It is self indulgent with a thin frothy story that goes on for too long because Coppola wants to film sunrises and parties.
Dunst is fine but she is not well served by the script but as Marie matures she dolls up her hair, wears lavish clothes and has a collection of shoes. She even takes in a lover. Coppola follows in her father's footsteps with a little bit of nepotism in the casting. Jason Schwartzman is her cousin and he is weak here, maybe because the script has given him little to do.