Horrible storytelling

Rating: 1/10 (30 October 2006)

I must say that I was expecting a whole lot more out of this movie - and frankly, a whole lot more could indeed have been put into this movie. Maybe I don't know Mrs. Coppola's "style"... So it's a little more "independent/Europpean-oriented", fine... I can also deal with the fact that you're hearing 70's-like rock music being played in ballroom dancing scenes and that it is used throughout the movie. That's OK, I accept (and respect) that. However, what I have zero respect for is a story poorly told and ultimately, that's what it should be about: the story, and how it moves you back and forth, through the highs and lows.
In that respect, the movie does not succeed at all. It does a horrible job at it. Where there could be room to further understand the background of the characters, to understand why Marie Antoinette even goes to France (not all of us have History majors) and to actually see the implications and consequences of her behavior outside of her kingdom of dreams, we are "treated" with long, boring, exceedingly visually-descriptive scenes of her day-to-day life, where things happen from one shot to another with apparently little to no connection.
Around me, in the theater, people kept moving in their seats back and forth, tapping feet, sighing heavily, almost as out of prayer that SOMETHING would happen and that you could get actually hear Kirsten Dunst talk for more than two minutes at a time which would be followed by five minutes of silence, when frankly, there is so much to be told.
So great, we know as much of Mrs. Antoinette's life as we know P Diddy's after an episode of MTV Cribs... But WHO is Marie Antoinette? WHERE does she come from? WHY is she there? And in the midst of her reign, HOW EXACTLY does the public react? And why are we shown a fraction of what we could really see? And more importantly, HOW does she end up in the guillotine?
To sum it up: I was expecting a whole lot more depth, and intensity (yes, there is room for that) out of this movie, with a lot more perspectives. A very good and interesting story could be told, and this movie could indeed get a ten star rating. But after what I've seen, a) I'm never again going to see a Sofia Coppola movie and b) I think I'll have to settle for when the History channel does a documentary on the subject. I really think it will be ten times more interesting and compelling than a pseudo-artsy movie like this.
Wouldn't recommend it to anyone.