While director Charles Shyer ... may have succeeded in creating an appropriate environment for all this skulduggery, he does so at the expense of coherent storytelling and drama.
Comment
01/10/02
The Affair of the Necklace (2001)
15
%
Tomatometer
How does the Tomatometer work 
Reviews Counted:60
Fresh:9
Rotten:51
Average Rating:3.7/10
Consensus: 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.
Runtime: 1 hr 57 mins
Genre: Dramas
Synopsis: This tale of intrigue and corruption is based on a true account of 18th Century French noblewoman Jeanne de la Motte-Valois (played by Oscar-winner Hilary Swank), whose family has been dispossessed... [More]
Starring: Hilary Swank, Simon Baker, Adrien Brody, Jonathan Pryce
Director: Charles Shyer
Reviews for The Affair of the Necklace
Top CriticClick to read the article
12/30/06
Top CriticClick to read the article
06/24/06
Top CriticClick to read the article
01/22/02
Top CriticFar too sodden to light my fire.
11/30/01
Shyer ... fails to whip the production into anything very special, and Swank seems hopelessly miscast and weak at its center.
12/25/01
The intrigue is stretched out long beyond when it remains intriguing and it all grows quite dull.
11/30/01
A discombobulated, transparently fictionalized French Revolutionary melodrama.
11/29/01
Oddly cast and ploddingly executed.
12/04/01
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.
12/26/01
Valois has the potential to be a great character -- a woman who refuses to stay in her socially prescribed feminine role, but Swank instead highlights her passive characteristics and domestic longings.
12/28/01
Rolled out in limited release in the hopes of making some lists--the last and cruellest irony of The Affair of the Necklace is that it will succeed
12/23/01
A crass, often ridiculously misguided period drama that spells everything out in nice, big block letters so even a small child could comprehend it.
06/26/02
This ham-handed period piece could cast Oscar winner Hilary Swank back to the ranks she came from.
12/01/01
[after 90 minutes] the film drags on for another half-hour and unnecessarily pads the finale until it seems interminable.
12/04/01
Beautifully acted and mounted.
12/01/01
Top CriticSwank's honest mistake is in trying to be worthy of a project that's beneath her.
02/01/05
Hilary Swank and Simon Baker make an especially attractive couple who have several electrifying moments onscreen.
12/24/01
The storytelling is hopelessly compromised by the movie's decision to sympathize with Jeanne.
12/25/01
Top CriticAn impressive achievement on the part of the writer, John Sweet, as well as the director, Charles Shyer.
01/15/02
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