I wouldn’t say all the fuss over Sofia Coppola’s anachronistic history project was much ado about nothing, but it was certainly much ado about nothingness. Coppola depicts Antoinette (Kirsten Dunst) as less monarch than entitled celebrity, reveling in a life of endless shoes, luscious desserts and blasts of 1980s modern rock. Beyond this, Marie doesn’t offer much – which would be fine if Coppola left it at that. The movie runs on longer than its conceit can sustain, while the climax, involving the offscreen shouting of rebellious peasants, feels like a hangover. Coppola would have been better off not allowing messy history to intrude on playtime.
