'Corsage' isn't a historically accurate film. Who cares, when Vicky Krieps is this good?

Elisabeth, Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary, has everything anyone could possibly want, as they say — except, as they also say, what she really wants: happiness.

If that sounds like the kind of story you've heard before, that’s because it is. But “Corsage,” Marie Kreutzer’s film, puts a new spin on history (as in, dispenses with it) and period pieces in general.

In real life Elisabeth certainly was not serenaded in the 19th century by a harpist singing the Rolling Stones’ “As Tears Go By.” (The Stones aren't that old.) But it works. Other bits of history are toyed with more egregiously.

This, too, is not uncharted territory, as anyone who has seen Sofia Coppola’s 2006 film “Marie Antoinette” can attest. But what makes “Corsage” feel so fresh and vital is the performance by Vicky Krieps in the title role.

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Director Marie Kreutzer isn't afraid to play with history

When we first see her, she is holding her breath underwater in a tub as attendants — who are free to say that she worries them since for the moment she can’t hear them — administer some kind of health regimen. She is also given to having her retinue shoehorn her into ever-tightening corsets (not, evidently, a deviation from historical fact), so suffocating that they make other women sick.

It’s not all horse riding and hair braiding, in other words.

Elisabeth, unhappily married and unhappy generally, is the subject of gossip; her weight is an obsession. But trying to maintain it is also, no doubt, a form of control, one of the few available to her. It’s not that she is opposed to the trappings of unimaginable wealth. Far from it. When she orders a timid friend to mount a horse, it’s a momentary shock and a reminder of her station — she does not live her life as someone who takes advantage of her position and power, except when she does.

But Elisabeth yearns for more, though more of what is not exactly clear.

Or maybe it is. Maybe she simply wants to be heard, as she says in so many words to her son at one of the interminable formal dinners she sits through with her husband, Emperor Franz Joseph (Florian Teichtmeister).

He’s a dullard, stiff and unimaginative. His job, he explains in no uncertain terms to Elisabeth, is to protect the empire. Hers is to “represent.”

He delivers this explanation, in the form of an admonition, to Elisabeth after her memorable exit from one of those stuffy dinners where she is expected to sit quietly and sip broth or whatever. She employs an anachronistic gesture, though the subjects gathered at the table have no trouble deciphering the meaning.

Elisabeth is a modern woman in a non-modern age

Elisabeth’s 40th birthday — her physician notes that this is longer than the life expectancy of her female subjects — is the catalyst for at least some of her ennui. But not all. Perhaps Kreutzer could have used the Replacement’s “Unsatisfied,” that great ballad of lament, in the soundtrack. It would have fit.

Elisabeth does find solace in things like visiting hospitals for both the wounded and the mentally ill. But she also finds frustration in how her husband is conducting the business of government, a point driven home by one of these visits. He brushes her off; he treats her generally like a child when he pays any attention to her at all. Her yearning for independence, her headstrong ideas, her inability to simply be subservient to her husband — all make her a curious presence.

In short, Elisabeth is a thoroughly modern woman living in a decidedly non-modern time, and chafing at the restrictions that are a part of that. Krieps, best known for “Phantom Thread,” expertly captures that dichotomy. It is a unique performance.

If you’re a student of history or a Wikipedia devotee, some aspects of the film, particularly its conclusion, might bother you. But they shouldn’t. Watch a documentary if you want straight facts. Watch what Kreutzer and Krieps have come up with here for something more.

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'Corsage' 4 stars

Great ★★★★★ Good ★★★★

Fair ★★★ Bad ★★ Bomb ★

Director: Marie Kreutzer.

Cast: Vicky Krieps, Florian Teichtmeister, Colin Morgan.

Rating: Not rated.

Note: In theaters Jan. 6.

Reach Goodykoontz at bill.goodykoontz@arizonarepublic.com. Facebook: facebook.com/GoodyOnFilm. Twitter: @goodyk.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: 'Corsage' movie review: Vicky Krieps shines as the Empress of Austria