Review of The Queen of Versailles (2012) by Felisa Z — 04 Aug 2012

It's hard to feel sorry for a guy who admits he's personally responsible for putting that idiot Bush in the White House. But the story of David Siegel and his wife Jackie is not that of caricatures of greed and unbridled materialism a la Gordon Gecko in Wall Street.

That's what makes this film work; these are not bad people trying to screw others for their newest Maserati and Monaco villa. He's a hard working entrepeneur who turns an idea into a megaempire, she's a drop dead model who finds security with an older man that adores her (though later one of their children perhaps most accurately describes her mom as her dad's "trophy wife.

") But the Great Crash of 2008 turns their world upside down, and the resulting stress of living "normally" makes their plight identifiable, in a strange way, with millions of other Americans.

I admire this family's willingness to let us see their misfortune as well as their extraordinary appetite for luxury. All in all, a worthy reminder to all of us of how brittle our collective sense of financial security is.