Sofia Coppola burst into the film scene with the impressive debut The Virgin Suicides and followed it up with an Oscar nominated Best Screenplay for the equally impressive Lost In Translation. So I was eagerly anticipating her third film, Marie Antoinette. Even the trailer showed great promise; it was like a music video with accompaniment from New Order’s brilliant “Age Of Consent.” Unfortunately, most of the film plays like a music video; I wasn’t invested in any of the characters, who seemed to be beside the point with all the distracting costumes, set pieces, food, and retro new wave soundtrack. The story also seemd to be beside the point. It also seemed very modern mainly due to the dialogue-I don’t see how you can project another era without some accents or formalized dialogue. To be charitable, I think it’s an ambitious failure, she took a risk to try something different from what she had made before, but the end result is probably less than she had originally conceived. It is an exercise of style over substance that doesn't feel right-something is missing from the mix.
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