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Affair of the Necklace, The
Mixed or average reviews
Based on 22 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 5 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info
Genre(s): Romance
Written by: John Sweet
Directed by: Charles Shyer
Release Date:
Theatrical: November 30, 2001
DVD: June 25, 2002
Running Time: 120 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: R for some sexuality
Starring Hilary Swank, Simon Baker, Adrien Brody, Jonathan Pryce, Joely Richardson, and Christopher Walken
A romantic drama based on the controversial true story of Jeanne De La Motte Valois, a countess whose name was stripped from her by the Royal Family during the late 18th Century. The story of her fight to restore her name and proper place in society is filled with mystery, intrigue and desire, with an infamous diamond necklace at the center of it all. (Warner Bros.)
Also On Metacritic
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Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas
Shyer and Sweet bring consistent clarity and ever-increasing depth to the playing out of Jeanne's bold scheming and single-minded resolve; a tone of brisk wit gives way effortlessly to poignancy and ultimately tragedy.
Read Full Review >New Times (L.A.) Gregory Weinkauf
It's beautiful and obvious, a dubious combination that may nonetheless ensure its success.
Read Full Review >Time Richard Schickel
You may not be able to follow the overall arc of their scheming, but scene by scene they are a delightful crew, hissing away behind their cloaks and fans.
USA Today Claudia Puig
The affair may have raised eyebrows all over 18th century Paris, but it's not likely to elicit more than a shrug from 21st century moviegoers.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold
The affair of the necklace itself is so complex and many-sided that it would take a Sidney Lumet to do justice to it on film.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
The movie has almost enough corny appeal to offset its lack of originality, though, and Walken is fun as Cagliostro, the court's great prognosticator and all-around weirdo.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
Swank is painfully uncharismatic, leaving Christopher Walken, in the minor role of occultist Count Cagliostro, to decamp with any scene in which he appears. His performance may not be historically credible, but it's hugely entertaining: Would that the same were true of the film overall.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum
Nobody seems to know quite what he's doing in this opulent but fairly empty period fashion show, apart from campy overactors like Christopher Walken and Jonathan Pryce who appear eager to fill the voids left by their colleagues.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir
The best thing I can say about it is that the costumes and the hambone acting keep it from being a deadly bore.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Ella Taylor
Jeanne is no fun at all. This is no fault of Swank, who's caught in the overall confusion of a movie crippled by its ambitions to be both caper and heartfelt melodrama, to say nothing of a cautionary tale about the politics of celebrity in our own culture.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Edward Guthmann
Plays like the cinematic equivalent of a paperback bodice- ripper with embossed type.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey
The miscast (or misdirected) Hilary Swank's Jeanne takes so little pleasure in coquetry and manipulation.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune John Petrakis
Rife with wrong people in major jobs, which leads to a movie that lacks the requisite verve to make to it sparkle.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
The storytelling is hopelessly compromised by the movie's decision to sympathize with Jeanne. We can admire someone for daring to do the audacious, or pity someone for recklessly doing something stupid, but when a character commits an act of stupid audacity, the admiration and pity cancel each other, and we are left only with the possibility of farce.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
Slipshod rather than sly. There's no fury to the movie, repressed or otherwise, which may be why when the Revolution arrives, it has all the impact of a guillotine with a deadly dull blade.
Read Full Review >New York Magazine Peter Rainer
The necklace in this movie was crafted by the elite London jewelers Asprey and Gerrard -- out of cubic-zirconium stones. That's just about perfect. The Affair of the Necklace is a cubic-zirconium epic.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Dana Stevens
Drags and meanders when it wants clarity and clockwork, and bogs down in hazy, vague emotions.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Jay Carr
Larceny at its most labored.
Village Voice Jessica Winter
L'affaire du collier was a convoluted palace intrigue that Shyer and screenwriter John Sweet don't bother to unpack, crafting instead an endless illustrated Harlequin paperback of mawkish backstory and corset-popping purple prose.
Read Full Review >New York Post Jonathan Foreman
It's hard to imagine how Shyer and script writer John Sweet could have brought this tale to the screen in a cruder, cornier or less interesting way.
Read Full Review >Variety Todd McCarthy
A staggeringly misguided stab at making the past come alive by people who have absolutely no feel for period filmmaking. Banal at best and laughable at worst.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 7.2 (out of 10) based on 5 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Misha L. gave it a2:
One doesn't expect *much* accuracy from historical movies bearing the legend "based on a true story." This film, however, frames the characters' actions badly and goes out of its way to invent wholly fictional motivations. Joely Richardson is to be commended for having studied the actual events and to have portrayed her character true-to-life. I can't condemn Hilary Swank for accepting such a meaty role in this nonsense script, but the real Jeanne was no unfairly disenfranchised victim.
Charles T. gave it a9:
Miscast but still entertaining, Shyer's best film.
Ch'erie gave it a5:
I gave it a 5, for bringing to light how indifference and arrogance from the Royal Family ultimately led to their demise. One could feel sorry for a Queen that did little more than worry about her own affairs when the ppl of France were starving. I said could, but then I wanted to jump into the movie and smack her for being so ignorant. Joely Richardson was about the most thought provoking actress, Swank, well, lackluster at best, with such a phoney accent. Walken, he's amusing in anything, but really should be put to better use, and the overall direction, was like diving in murky water. You had to strain your eyeballs to see much of the scenes, and ears to hear the plot being unravelled, I used the captions LOL.
Nicola P. gave it a 10:
I loved the movie i would definitely watch it again.
Maíra R. gave it a 10:
Beautiful! Tha's all!
