Unfortunately, this is not going to be a positive review. But let’s start with those things the films did well. While not everyone will appreciate the choice of modern music over this period piece -- I did. I quite enjoyed the music. The contrast of a more or less strictly visual 1700’s with a more or less strictly rock modern audio makes for a tasty experience. I welcomed it in A Knight's Tale and I enjoyed it again here. There’s quite a lot of music, more than dialogue. So if you know you don’t like that sort of thing, you might want to miss this film.

Amidst ones that didn't, there were also some moments that played well. Early on, Marie is taken by horse and carriage to France. Someplace in some autumn forest her Austrian party is met by a French one. As apparently was the custom she’s stripped of everything from her Austrian homeland -- her friends, her transport, her dog, even the clothes on her back. And she’s given French clothes, French dogs, French friends. Kirsten communicates the subtleties of such a transition well with just her eyes and facial expressions. In fact, the dialogue in the film is quite minimal. But, this nuance -- moving from one land to the other and being left on character alone to hold tightly to your original identity -- is a sweet one.

And there are a few other nuances here and there, but in between, there’s a whole lot of slow moving film. A slow moving film that just gets slower and ends with a whisper, let alone a head rolling. I left the theatre asking what it was Sofia Coppola was trying to say with the film -- save for to communicate in a slow lavish way how Marie eventually traded in her innocence for indulgence.

Interestingly enough, Marie was 14 when sent to marry Prince Louis who wasn't much older. While Kirsten does her best, she doesn’t look 14, nor does she age in this film at all. I think the lack of visible aging also hinders momentum, creates an odd stagnation.

In the press notes director Sofia Coppola explains, “The idea was to capture in the design the way in which I imagined the essence of Marie Antoinette’s spirit. So the film’s candy colors, its atmosphere and the teenaged music all reflect and are meant to evoke how I saw that world from Marie’s perspective. She was in a total silk and cake world.”

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