Marie Antoinette

Marie Antoinette

No matter what, good or bad, Sofia Coppola movies are always interesting. While films like Lost in Translation and The Virgin Diaries are widely loved and well-regarded, her less-loved works such as The Bling Ring still have enough interesting elements to make them worth checking out, even if they're not great as a whole. For me, Marie Antoinette falls under the second category: it's an interesting-but-not-great-as-a-whole Sofia Coppola film.

The premise of Marie Antoinette is telling the (from as far as I know) mostly-accurate tale of the Queen of France, but heavily sprinkled with modernism. The costumes and sets are gorgeous and period-appropriate, but the actors all keep their own accents and speak modern English, and the soundtrack is full of cool alternative bands such as Gang of Four, Aphex Twin, Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Cure, New Order, and The Strokes. It creates a strange combination of old and new in a similar fashion to filmmaker Baz Luhrmann, but unlike a Luhrmann film, this movie is carefully paced and doesn't hit you over the head with empty symbolism and style. It's smartly written, and the visuals are lavish but tasteful.

The problem with Marie Antoinette is that, even though its ideas are presented clearly and there is a forward-moving plot, it still feels like nothing really happens. Part of this is because Marie Antoinette is not a particularly strong character. Her circumstances are fascinating: an Austrian royal is suddenly married to the King of France, but the king refuses to consummate the marriage and everyone is blaming her for it. However, all that's really revealed about Antoinette is that she has all the riches and privileges of being a queen, but is emotionally and sexually unsatisfied because of her husband. If someone asked me to describe Marie Antoinette's actual personality, I could only say that she's somewhat rebellious and somewhat lower-class, but even that's only occasionally touched on in the film. Within the plot she undeniably goes through an arc, but it doesn't seem to change her much as a person. Maybe it's Kirsten Dunst's performance's fault, but I happen to think she's an underrated actress and that the blame falls more on Coppola's directing. The subdued, understated nature of the acting in her other films makes sense because of their tone, but the tone of this film is a bit more over-the-top and fun, so that should also come through in the acting. It's okay for Kirsten Dunst to be more excited and more devastated, to clearly portray these emotions, especially when the actors around her (such as Rip Torn and Judy Davis) have a wide variety of expressions and emotions. In addition to not much seeming to affect the lead, the film itself seems to be unaffected by the story. Both the cinematography and the plot are shown in a distant, objective fashion, instead of getting up-close-and-personal with the characters' emotions. Lost in Translation isn't afraid to feel, so I wonder why this film is.

I'd still recommend the movie for the visuals and its unique style, but if you're looking for a deeply satisfying experience I'd say put this one on hold.