Before I saw Marie Antoinette I had made up my mind not to like it. Sure, Sofia Coppola is a good director and I enjoyed Lost in Translation a lot. The subject matter, the life of French queen Marie Antoinette, wasn't uninteresting to me either. I'd heard both good and bad things about it. However, the whole premise - an arty retelling of Marie Antoinette's life with a modern rock soundtrack, flashy visuals, and hardly any dialogue - just sounded a bit pretentious. Or at least very self-indulgent.
Then I went out and watched the movie.
One thing I was never worried about was Kirsten Dunst in the lead role and it turns out I was correct in not doubting her. She brings the right amount of girlish naiveté and seems very comfortable on screen, especially during scenes with absolutely no dialogue. And while the movie does have very limited dialogue it never feels empty and the actors express emotions well enough that you won't be bored. The film might even do a better job of this than the similarly sparse Lost in Translation, during which (often in scenes lacking Bill Murray's presence) I found myself a little bored.
What I hadn't expected Marie Antoinette to be was understated and subtle. From the trailer it came off as a fast-paced, flashy, and, in a way, irreverent movie. It is, however, none of these things.
The movie is paced very deliberately and mostly impeccably. It lingers for ten to twenty minutes on small everyday items for Antoinette, establishing things the audience can relate to and really bringing the viewer into her life inside Versailles. Other details - some would argue main events in her life (e.g., her third child's birth and death) - are skipped over in less than a minute.
Off-putting? Not at all. The events that Coppola hardly acknowledges don't really concern us or Antoinette. We understand the meaning of them without having to be bludgeoned over the head with them. That's what's great about this film - it's laying out the small events and items that made up Antoinette's life, not the big supposedly "important" ones, and not telling you how to feel. Oh, and the soundtrack works great. 
Article comments
1 - Marie Antoinette Fan who does not want people to know her name
I am very dissapointed with the person who wrote this they had no idea of her life and Kristen Dunst looked nothing like her she had ASH BLONDE hair which she usually powdered blue I myself admire this sad queen and her story and I find this movie more of an insult than a biography it's more of a historical fiction and this is more like trashing her reputation Goodbye or Good-day
2 - STM
Um, it's a movie. It doesn't purport to be fact. It purports to be entertainment, and that is what the writer here is saying it is.
Perhaps we'd all be better off if people stopped mistaking what comes out of Hollywood as fact. It never is. I say if you want fact, go and read a history book.
If you want entertainment, go and see a movie.