The Affair of the Necklace

REVIEW
Victor Hugo, Charles Dickens et al had it all wrong -- it wasn't the victimization of the poor, or the disparity of wealth, or hunger, violence and corruption that brought about the French Revolution in the late 18th century. It was jewelry. A dazzling, sparkling necklace to be precise. At least that's what one could come away with from the muddled storytelling of director Shyer's opulent but lifeless costume epic. Playing her as neither cunning nor duplicitous, Swank is Jeanne St. Remy de Valois, a noblewoman who will stop at nothing to restore her disgraced family name. She concocts a plan that involves scamming Marie Antoinette, among a few other highly placed players. And it all revolves around a necklace. The film offers little of the era's climate other than dastardly court intrigue and Jeanne's manipulation, failing to properly lay the foundation for the story's big payoff. At least Walken is quite entertaining as another scam artist who has no illusions about what he's doing. Nice sets and costumes, too. There's little enjoyment in this whole affair, but a twisted pleasure in the irony that Marie would lose her head over a necklace.