DVD Review

The Queen of Versailles

Reviewed by | Nov 16, 2012
LIFESTYLES OF THE RICH AND FAMOUS This brilliant documentary allows viewers to indulge in schadenfreude
Image credit: Lauren Greenfield
LIFESTYLES OF THE RICH AND FAMOUS This brilliant documentary allows viewers to indulge in schadenfreude
EW's GRADE
A-

Details Genre: Documentary; Distributor: Magnolia Pictures

Most of us secretly get off on watching the rich brought low. In our age of Real Housewives voyeurism, schadenfreude has gone from a fancy word to a national pastime. Take Lauren Greenfield's The Queen of Versailles (2012, 1 hr., 40 mins., PG), a wonderfully intimate doc that follows time-share mogul David Siegel and his much younger wife, Jackie, as they build their $100 million Orlando dream home ... until the 2008 financial meltdown hits, and the Siegels melt with it. Despite her initial brashness and her taste for the tacky, Jackie's the big surprise here. She's more sympathetic and less of a ''Let them eat cake'' villain than the title suggests. A-

Originally posted Nov 14, 2012 Published in issue #1234 Nov 23, 2012 Order article reprints