"The Queen of Versailles" - Film Review

Lauren Greenfield's Queen of Versailles finds a unique lens for exploring issues surrounding the economic state of the United States. The film tells the story of one of the nation's wealthiest families, the Siegels, pre and post 2008 economic collapse. And in the lavishness of their lifestyle and in the conflict it comes into when confronted with economic problems, the film finds a sad, darkly funny tale of excessive consumption and materialism with much greater implications for the larger U.S.

David Siegel made his fortune by founding the world's largest time share company, Westgate Resorts. So assured of his success and a workaholic, he put all his time and energy into the company. Nearly all of his family's money is tied up in the company. His wife Jackie dropped out from an engineering job at IBM to pursue a career as a model, which she was successful at for some time before marrying David. Now she lives out her days in their massive home with dozens of dogs and her seven kids. But this is not enough; she convinced her husband to build a full scale replica of France's Versailles Palace (the largest single family home in the U.S.), a house that remains incomplete.

In the miniature Versailles, Greenfield finds a near perfect unintentional symbol for her subject matter. The Versailles on the outside is near complete; it's luxurious, extravagant, and, to the right eye, gorgeous. But the inside is unfinished with scaffolding still in place. Greenfield started out the film before the 2008 and continues the story with a new direction in the face of the Siegel's new found struggles. The Siegels seem baffled in the face of their new economic challenges; they don't even speak the language of this downgraded lifestyle. The Siegels have to make sacrifices (sacrifices that Jackie never really takes to heart). Versailles has to go on the market (but who the hell is going to buy it?).

Greenfield is cynical about her subject matter. There are times where she's clearly taken aback by how ungrateful and ignorant the family so constantly is, particularly Jackie, a former Miss America contestant whose slowly becoming a plastically calcified version of her former self. Greenfield has an eye for images that consummately encapsulate everything that's happening and that she wants to get across. For example, at one point, there's a wonderful, hilarious shot of a stretch limo going through a McDonald's drive thru.

It would be all to easy to villainize the Siegels (and Greenfield's opinion seems to sit with more bemused discontent). But the film does a really great job of showing the fullness of the world its exploring by branching out to do interviews with the children and employees of the Siegels. In the employees, the film nicely demonstrates the extreme contrast between the Siegel's life and those living more typical and difficult American lives. The Siegels aren't completely terrible people; they're just people who've known too little of any other life for far too long. Both David and Jackie grew up in low income families, but though they mention this, it's hard to imagine it.

It's a surprisingly sympathetic portrait but it's also one that doesn't hold back its punches, allowing us to take a strange pleasure in the near demise of this frustrating and selfish family.  

Grade: A