A Royal Flush (of Embarrassments)

Rating: 6/10 (20 October 2006)

There is much that is commendable in this film. For starters, I should mention Kirsten Dunst, who delivers an inspired performance in the role of the newly betrothed Dauphine and eventual Queen of France. The costumes, the scenes at Versailles, the attention paid to the strict protocol observed at every significant interval in the lives of the royals, all of these things help buoy this film above sheer mediocrity. The very best moment of the film occurs when the Dauphine, in a political move, deigns to speak to Mme. du Barry, the Louis XV's upstart, simpering harlot. It is a beautifully delivered, capital moment for Miss Dunst. But there are major problems with this film, as well. I found the American accents jarring and risible, for example. While fake French or Austrian accents might not have been the best solution, they certainly would have had the advantage of preventing actors who play characters of so weighty a history from sounding like they've just been shopping at the mall. I thought the soundtrack, a hodge-podge of mediocre pop music that no one will be listening to for very long, an ill-conceived idea that speaks more to Miss Coppola's (perhaps imperious) determination to do things her way than to the making of choices that best befit a period piece. Finally, the second half of the film is largely devoted to Marie Antoinette's decline into hedonism. We are made witness to a frolicking slapdash of parties and endless champagne and pastoral make-believe in muslin and gauze, to which we become mere spectators and during which we lose our connection to the Queen. Viewers interested in learning more about Marie Antoinette's sartorial excesses should read Caroline Weber's "Queen of Fashion: What Marie Antoinette Wore to the Revolution."