unfortunately, a big disappointment

Rating: 5/10 (22 August 2006)

I went into this movie with high expectations/hopes, despite the fact that the film wasn't well received at its Cannes premier (I loved Sophia's first two movies, and my husband and I figured that the snobs at Cannes were touché with a Hollywood take on French history; my husband is French, btw). The film was bad, and poorly made (let me stress poorly). I could see the microphone in almost every scene. My husband noticed the microphone first (because he always notices little details/mistakes), but I started noticing it as well (which means it had to be bad because I never notice anything like that). There is even one scene where you can see a man holding the microphone reflected in a mirror. It was so bad, it was ridiculous; we almost thought it was a joke. The only reasoning we could come up with to explain this sloppy editing is that they didn't have the budget to shoot take after take at Versailles.
The acting was horrid; the story was a bore (or lack of story). The only thing going for it was the scenery/costumes. Plus, I liked the realism. (I hate gloried/romanticized epic historical biopics, and thankfully, this wasn't one of them). The soundtrack was modern (with some baroque music thrown in for kicks), and this didn't work at all (although it was kind of cool to hear the Cure during their coronation ceremony); the music sounded forced, like it was stuck in there just to make the film seem 'original'. I could go on, but it's been a while since I saw it, and it's no longer fresh on my mind (I saw it in France during its opening week).