Casting an American actress in the title role is perhaps the coolest thing Coppola does in the film, or at least the most audacious. Instead of forcing poor Kirsten Dunst to put on an Austrian accent that would surely be derided, Coppola drives her central point home by directing Dunst to act like a normal American teenager. Marie Antoinette was forced into a strange land with bizarre rules and customs. The Dauphine turned Queen is just as out of place at Versailles as Dunst is in a French Revolution era biopic. But Coppola makes her film relatable, and modern, by casting the star of Bring It On and the Spider-Man trilogy. Many of the actors play their roles with a contemporary style, making Versailles like an especially gossipy high school. As the pressures of politics wear her down, she feels isolated and confused. Marie Antoinette deals with this by indulging herself with lavish parties, expensive clothes, rich desserts, and gambling. Was that the right thing to do? Maybe not, but Coppola presents the queen as an actual human being who makes choices and wants to live her life the way she wants. The switch from the queen being popular to being judged by society is swift and harsh. Even the last lines in the film suggest that she was never fully understood, or allowed to be anything other than the spoiled queen of France.

Dunst’s career was really popping after her acclaimed work in Coppola’s The Virgin Suicides, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and Interview with the Vampire, along with Bring it On and Spider-Man, of course. Then she found herself in a bunch of rom-coms like Elizabethtown and Wimbledon before Marie Antoinette. Dunst’s career tapered off because her films weren’t very successful and she was dealing with issues in her personal life. After her work in Melancholia, the TV series Fargo, and her role in Coppola's latest film The Beguiled, it looks like Dunst is back in full swing. Her performance in Marie Antoinette is quite strong, and shows what she's capable of as an actress, as she navigates the theater of the Royal Court and becomes what she was pretending to be.