The Affair of the Necklace (2001)
Average Rating: 3.7/10
Reviews Counted: 61
Fresh: 9 | Rotten: 52
A film about court intrigue, The Affair of the Necklace turns out to be more dull than juicy. Swank seems flat and miscast in the central role of Jeanne.
Average Rating: 4.6/10
Critic Reviews: 21
Fresh: 6 | Rotten: 15
A film about court intrigue, The Affair of the Necklace turns out to be more dull than juicy. Swank seems flat and miscast in the central role of Jeanne.
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Average Rating: 3.1/5
User Ratings: 3,727
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Movie Info
A director of contemporary comedies, Charles Shyer makes a genre leap into period costume drama with this lavish epic based on a controversial chapter of French history. Hilary Swank stars as Jeanne de la Motte Valois, a countess whose royal title has been stripped from her family by the crown in late 18th century. Determined to restore her good name and privilege, Jeanne schemes politically and sexually with a trio of co-conspirators that includes her gigolo lover, Retaux de Villette (Simon
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Cast
-
Hilary Swank
Jeanne Valois -
Jonathan Pryce
Cardinal Louis de Rohan -
Simon Baker
Retaux de Vilette -
Adrien Brody
Nicolas De La Motte -
Brian Cox
Minister Breteuil -
Joely Richardson
Marie Antoinette -
Christopher Walken
Cagliostro -
Paul Brooke
Monsieur Bohmer -
Peter Eyre
Monsieur Bassenge -
Simon Kunz
Minister of Titles -
Hayden Panettiere
Young Jeanne -
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The Affair of the Necklace Trailer & Photos
All Critics (71) | Top Critics (25) | Fresh (12) | Rotten (52) | DVD (15)
A cheap bauble of a flick.
Top CriticThe film has a desperate, disjointed feel that suggests the filmmakers realized it wasn't working and kept trying, ineffectually, to fix it.
The entire film seems a series of disjointed pieces, a screenful of iron filings waiting in vain for the magnet that will line them up in a unified field.
Shyer's film denies us the double dip of vice and virtue. It's moralistic.
The storytelling is hopelessly compromised by the movie's decision to sympathize with Jeanne.
The result is a mess, but a fairly enjoyable one, with some gorgeous period detail.
Mature themes, big stars in French Rev. intrigue.
Much of the dramatic juice and intrigue have been drained out of this old-fashioned costume drama, that in the hands of director Charles Shyer and actress Hilary Swank becomes stiff, stuffy, and banal affair.
Swank's honest mistake is in trying to be worthy of a project that's beneath her.
I felt as if I was at an Yves St. Laurent fashion show and the actors were modeling the latest in 18th-century fashions.
Jeanne is no fun at all.
... takes a fascinating footnote and reduces it to a mediocre and fitfully entertaining film.
Fans of costume dramas or those who make a study of such things will want to pick this up.
A crass, often ridiculously misguided period drama that spells everything out in nice, big block letters so even a small child could comprehend it.
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