The Queen of Versailles
★★★★
(2012)
Lauren Greenfield's documentary of the fall of a family's grotesque wealth is fantastically entertaining, bluntly satirical and sharply funny. Underlining the financial crash of 2008 with a mid-point turn around the film suddenly becomes what multimillionaire David Segal dubs "A riches-to-rags tale." A showcase of wasted money, superficiality and excess coated in zero taste by way of the American dream, The Queen of Versailles will enrage and please in equal measure with its thick layer of schadenfreude.
The family in question is Segal, his surgically enhanced but sweet air-headed wife Jackie and their 8 children, a dozen dogs and as many nannies, cooks and cleaners. Greenfield begins her questioning at the hight of the Segal's power. They're just about to break a record with their time share company opening the largest hotel of its kind on the Las Vegas strip, their parties are still legendary and their political influence is strong (read: shady) to say the least. "I could tell you how I secured Florida for Bush, but I'm not sure it's totally legal." say Segal with a chillingly cold smile.
Jackie quickly emerges as the star of the show, babbling around their half-built mansion, showing off $17,000 jackets, zipping away on holiday on the family jet. She's the picture of America that we all hoped didn't actually exist, but their she is, boasting about the 10 kitchens that their new pad (the biggest house in America) will have. The real film begins when the timeshare is threatened with foreclosure and David locks himself away 2 years trying to come up with the money, trying at the same time to curb his wives spending which results in a hilarious Christmas shopping visit to Walmart.
Although we are more than happy to laugh at these people there is remarkably something kind and honest about Jackie and her blinkered attempts at charity in the films final third. For every moment of heart break for the children involved and the vacuous world they are growing up in there are brilliant moments of surreal comedy and some grounding characters in the Segals Philippine maids who send every penny home to their unseen families.
A reality TV show filtered through the financial crisis, The Queen of Versailles is wonderful entertainment and in a sick and twisted sort of way you're going to feel so bad about laughing so hard. Greenfield's film shows the ignorance and ineptitude of the super rich comedically and uniquely like so many accumulating dog shits on 90,000 square foot of silk carpet.
