Movie Review - The Queen of Versailles

The Queen of Versailles (2012)

Directed by Lauren Greenfield
***This film is currently streaming on Netflix***

Director Lauren Greenfield lucked into this film, that's for sure.  When she initially started lensing The Queen of Versailles, Greenfield probably simply thought she was going to shoot a movie about the building of the largest single family home in the United States.  David Siegel and his decades-younger wife Jackie own Westgate Resorts, the biggest vacation rental time-share business in the United States.  Raking in the dough as people fork over their money thanks to the late-2000s bank-lending fiascos we've all heard about in the news, the Siegels decide to build a huge mansion outside of Orlando modeled after the gigantic ostentatious French "chateau" Versailles.  As the new decade begins, Westgate and the Siegels are forced into crisis mode as their completely legal though money-hungry ways force them into crisis mode.

As we see the Siegels working on their gigantic home, I was moderately shocked at how down-to-earth David appears to be.  He recognizes the extravagance, but kowtows to his wife and her wishes.  Like David, Jackie also acknowledges the craziness of her wishes.  She came from nothing and is incredibly grateful for everything that her husband can provide for her, but since he can provide for her, she might as well take advantage of it.  (And personally, I see nothing wrong with that in a capitalistic society.)  While Jackie does come off as a stereotypical bimbo in both appearance and oftentimes in her words, she's never really painted as someone who should be ridiculed.  She's simply shown as a lucky lady who happened to marry a guy who gained much success.  As their lives begin to fall apart around them, we can't help but feel a tiny bit for the Siegels who, like the lower and middle classes who were simply approved for loans they could't afford, were screwed over by the reckless lending of the banks.

For the most part, The Queen of Versailles works, but I can't help but think it would have been more successful had it clocked in at under an hour as a short-form documentary.  The film stays much too much past its welcome as the Siegel's lives begin to unravel, turning into something that verges a bit too close to mocking them for their financial success-turned-failure.  Verging on a Kardashian-like E! Network docudrama, when the focus shifts to marital dissent, it feels too voyeuristic in a way.  Still, The Queen of Versailles does paint a nice picture of an important event in our new century, hopefully shedding some light on the human side of the corporate failures that led to the current recession.

The RyMickey Rating:  B-