Interesting...up to a point.A documentary on the lives of David and Jackie Siegel. He is the founder and owner of Westgate Resorts, the largest timeshare resort company in the world and she is his wife. Focuses more on her (hence the title): her rise from humble beginnings to the wife of a billionaire, the palatial house they were building ("Versailles", after the French palace) and then the problems they and the company faced in the wake of the GFC. Quite interesting for about the first half. You see her humble beginnings, how he made his fortune and his plans for his company. You also see how the GFC turned everything upside down, how the banks, despite government bailouts, did their best to undermine their own debtors and seemed more interested in claiming their assets than receiving debt payments. It is an interesting study in how to make and lose a fortune, the consequences of the GFC and the unscrupulous practices of the banks (ironically, the same organisations who caused the GFC).With these points made, however, the movie seems to run out of things to say. It drifts for the latter half. About the only interesting observation from then on is how she is unable to adjust to a much-diminished budget (even just having a budget would have been foreign to her). This creates a strain in the household, as he is desperately trying to cut costs.The latter half does reduce the empathy one has for the characters, especially Jackie. In the first half they seemed reasonably normal, despite their wealth. It is in the second half she loses our engagement by behaving rather arrogantly.Overall: worth watching, but it does feel like a drag in the second half.

You can't hate these people, and it's rational that Lauren Greenfield didn't. In meanness of the fact that, to make certain, they were supplying her mind blowing to a way of life the massive majority, even the "rich" people, can barely imagine. What you can do is regret them. It's a shame they haven't considered more useful and valued methods to spend their wealth. Still, their wealth is in view of income from the customers who had the same issue. This place has 9 kitchens and one over paid hooker that has never ever stepped a foot inside of a kitchen in her life. She gave it all up to be a trophy wife, because she began to realize that being a pretty blond was getting her farther in life, than working as a woman engineer in the 80's. Doing this has made her a very smart and shallow woman. The other fascinating thing about the documentary that is paid attention to is the way, they all kind of cried about losing it all and becoming poor, which was never going to happen. It is normal for some rich people to go bankrupt, but dealing with their situation, it wasn't a matter of being down flat broke. I equally loved Jackie Siegel (or if nothing else, disliked her short of what I thought I would) in the documentary. Maybe this is how she helped me to remember each Jennifer Coolidge character wake up. I'm just going to say that this wild thing is not happening. Or maybe she is blowing big amounts of money at Wal-Mart to spare. The Siegel family's weird job is somewhat serious. The Siegel children don't seem to be turning out very well for his teenage daughter, who in one scene truly and tells off Siegel for being a devil. It's barely shocking that the kids are wild and spoiled, since their dad is very conceited.

"The Queen of Versailles" is an extremely unusual documentary, and I can only assume the histrionic nature of the Siegel family is why the film was ever made. It consists of a camera crew following this family (and in particular Jackie and her husband David) during a period which appears to be about two years to three. I honestly cannot expect most families being willing to have their lives chronicled and disrupted like this--particularly because the second half of the film shows the family at their worst. Odd, that's for sure.When the film begins, David Siegel is an incredibly wealthy man. He's made his fortune with his vast empire of time share properties and because he is so wealthy, he and his wife are in the process of building a new home they nickname 'Versailles'. It is projected to be the largest single family home in America! During most of this period of the film the camera follows Jackie--a woman who seems to love the attention and who lives a charmed life of luxury.Part-way through the film, however, comes the market and housing crash of 2008. And with it, disposable incomes have diminished--making selling of time shares almost impossible. Additionally, bank financing, which had previously been easy to obtain by David, suddenly evaporated--leaving his heavily leveraged empire on the brink of collapse. During this period of the film, Jackie has come to accept that she WON'T be moving into the new palace--and they might lose their current home as well. She handles this by shopping.It's rather hard to adequately rate this film. On one hand, the filmmakers have provided a wholly unique film showing these folks--warts and all. And, it is well constructed and compelling. But on the other hand, there really is nothing to like or admire about these folks. Despite their wealth, they seem spiritually impoverished, self-centered and sad...profoundly sad. In fact, after seeing the film, my entire family felt depressed and insisted we watch something uplifting or fun. Seeing this film is anything but fun and it's not even good for someone wanting to laugh at the Siegels. They aren't funny....just profoundly sad. A very sad marriage, spoiled kids, a love of money, looks and possessions...all quite depressing to witness.

You have to laff when the "Queen"--often seemingly desperate to kiss her AH husband into some sort of affectionate submission (she always fails to receive anything other than an aggressively polite peck, which seems more like a 'kiss-off')-- the "Queen" plays the victim card, due to the financial upheaval in 2008. She's truly sickening, despite her "humble" roots. Were these pigs ever in real jeopardy? Well, their "conspicuous consumption, had to be "downsized" from poisonous excess to sheer madness, and meanwhile, the wonderful housekeeper has suffered and struggled to meet her own dreams--and you get the feeling she's cast her lot in with the wrong people. Fascinating and disgusting, see it.