The Affair of the Necklace (2001)

for costumes, for the admirable work of Adrien Brody and Jonathan Pryce, for the effort of Hillary Swank to be credible in a role who is not real comfortable for her, for a lovely Marie Antoinette by Joely Richardson, for the decent way for present a legend in attractive manner. film of costumes and atmosphere, remembering Dumas more than the spirit of reign of Louis XVI, it is a beautiful film. and this is enough.

Everything was well done in the movie; it was intriguingly written, well acted and one of the best period dramas I have watched. The pace of the plot kept my interest and it was cleverly presented. Not sure why some folks didn't like it. The scenery was authentic and magnificent and the action and performances flowed easily through it. It gave an in depth insight into the French Revolutionary period and inspired me to do more research. It was well worth watching. It did annoy me a bit to have the French peasant class portrayed with cockney accents; but that is my only real complaint. I thoroughly recommend this as an engrossing Sunday movie selection. I do so love a mystery.

There's nothing wrong with the acting in this movie, but it's still largely a failure, and that because of the script, which meanders here and there, not keeping the characters consistent, not explaining things that need to be explained, etc. Primarily, it fails to make us care about Jeanne de la Motte. Yes, it's terrible that she lost her family and home when she was a child. But deciding to take advantage of the very naive Cardinal de Rohan to get enough money to buy back her family estate makes her unsympathetic and foolish as well, as we know she will not be able to take advantage of any momentary success she might have in her efforts to deceive the Cardinal. Too often, the characters' actions just don't make sense. Jeanne remains distant, despite the occasional efforts to elicit our sympathies for her.There's no reason to watch this movie, I'm afraid. It's slow moving and uninteresting.

A great story was wasted by the trivialization of the real account of the theft of the necklace, based on a fictionalized mistreatment of Jeanne Remy de Valois. The woman was a fabulous schemer whose sense of entitlement is world-class. It would have been a great story if the writer had used the real one, instead of the weak screenplay composed using scant facts. The role of the fake Countess La Motte is a scenery chewer worthy of Faye Dunaway in her heydey and I would have loved to have seen Tim Curry assay the Cardinal Rohan character which is equal parts scoundrel and fool. The only victim in the real story is Marie Antoinette, in whose name the scheme is initiated, but who never had any part in the necklace theft - in fact turned it down three times when offered it by the foolhardy jewelers who designed it for the more audacious Madame du Barry, Marie Antoinette's godfather-in-law's mistress. The real interplay of ego and privilege ending in utter tragedy had all the stuff of a fascinating and lively movie. This wasn't it.