Review of Marie Antoinette (2006) by Randyb — 30 Oct 2006

A visual marvel, MARIE ANTOINETTE recreates the look of the period flawlessly and sets it to a divine soundtrack of mostly 80's gems. I enjoyed it, but it is definitely not for everyone (for the most part if you consider yourself a manly man who watches ESPN and the like, you will hate this film).

I appreciate it more looking back on it than I did when I was sitting in the theatre. There were many moments where I was saying "Hurry it up already! Enough pretty redundancy!" Yet looking back later I realized that those redundant moments were what Marie's life was about, and that it sets up for the brilliantly executed ending.

I was looking forward to seeing Kirsten Dunst (as Marie of course) get decapitated, but the way Sofia Coppola bypasses that grim scenario and the audience's morbid enthusiasm is incredible. I personally would've rather seen someone like Reese Witherspoon cast, but Dunst wasn't too bad in the role.

It's not that she couldn't act the part, just that she doesn't look the era. It's like casting Winona Ryder in THE CRUCIBLE and expecting me to believe that she comes from the 17th century.

The commentary heard echoed throughout many reviews is that it wasn't historically accurate, but if they paid attention they'd realize that the film wasn't supposed to be. It's based on a work of fiction, not on history.

Taken as it is MARIE ANTOINETTE is a pretty good, ultimately touching film, it's just not entirely as perfect as it seemed to be. But then again neither was that world.