Pretty vacant. The worst movie I've ever seen...

Rating: 1/10 (24 June 2007)

I can't believe that I actually gritted my teeth and hung on all the way through the painful anachronistic soundtrack, empty-headed dialog, non-existent plot, and vacuous acting, hoping against hope that surely no-one could mangle the intrinsic drama of Marie's infamous trial and execution. Sadly, this was a far from worthwhile sacrifice.
Apparently Sony Pictures put a $40M budget into this turkey, and on the surface, it looks like they grossed a positive 50% return on their investment. What that says about current audience tastes is nothing less than horrifying.
Anything good to say? Costume design was very good; the scenery was of course magnificent, since it was shot largely on location.
But whatever portion of the budget was earmarked for a script and a screenplay must instead have been snorted up the principals' noses, or blown on fireworks, or something, because it was lost completely without trace. The dialog is so excruciatingly bad and appallingly delivered, it's actually a minor relief that there's so little of it.
No background is established; no social or political context is established; characters are parachuted into the "story" without a word of introduction or a moment of communicative interaction. It's hard to tell whether Coppola either intentionally takes giant liberties with the biographical facts of Marie's life, or simply has no clue about the egregious mistakes her film makes. The film overall is so awful, the latter seems likeliest.
Along with failed "kitsch" effects, the film's excellent visuals are utterly polluted by a crap contemporary soundtrack that completely jars against the scenery.
I'm left with a cliché I thought I'd never descend to: Sofia Coppola just took 123 minutes of my life from me, and I want it back!