Review of The Queen of Versailles (2012) by Marjan S — 03 Jun 2012

This is a fantastic documentary about the family of a wealthy real estate tycoon who is building what will be the largest home in America, a Florida estate modeled on the Palace of Versailles in France.

The film initially distances you from its subjects as the wealthy couple, David and Jackie Siegel, are shown to have extraordinarily bad taste, surrounding themselves with bizarre portraits of themselves posing regally or riding horses and boasting of their important role in the election of George Bush.

But as the film goes on and the financial crisis severely cripples the timeshare business which is the foundation for their wealth, you see the people that they are in a startlingly revealing fashion.

There are some very personal and painful scenes made all the more painful in light of the first impressions which were laid on so thick in the beginning. They become helpless as a serious cash crunch in which their lenders demand that they make sacrifices forces them to lay off many of their household staff.

Their home becomes littered with the feces of their dogs while a pet lizard is trapped in its cage where it starves to death, forgotten by the family and left untended by the now fired household staff.

Whatâ(TM)s most affecting, though, are some of the comments made by members of the family directly to the camera, like David Siegelâ(TM)s son who works for the family business, admitting that he doesnâ(TM)t have a personal relationship with his father, just a business relationship, or David Siegel himself telling the documentarian that he gets no strength from his marriage.

This is not just a goofy portrait of people with more money than sense (though it is that) but a very detailed, shaded portrait of the American Dream.