The Affair Of The Necklace
Jack Warner, who was tired of historical dramas, said to his producers: “Don’t give me any more pictures where they write with feathers.” He might have meant “The Affair of the Necklace.” This is a movie that used to be called a bodice ripper, and still could be if more bodices got ripped. It tells the story of a scandal that leads up to the French Revolution, involving a silly girl who thinks she can outsmart a cardinal and a royal jeweler and Marie Antoinette and Cagliostro, the leader of the Illuminati (Christopher Walken). One look at Cagliostro, and she should know she’s in over her head.
Hilary Swank stars as Jeanne St. Remy de Valois, who later becomes Jeanne de la Motte Valois after her marriage of convenience. The operative word here is “Valois.” It’s her family name; she was orphaned as a child when her parents were engaged in schemes against the crown. She dreams of restoring the great name of her family line and this means getting back into their family house from which she has been barred for life since childhood. And so begins an audacious scheme.
She knows Cardinal Louis de Rohan (Jonathan Pryce) wants to be prime minister. She persuades him that Marie Antoinette will look more kindly on his cause if he presents the queen with an expensive necklace containing 647 diamonds. She then gets money from him; takes possession of said necklace through fraudulent means involving forgery; keeps it for herself while using its sale value as leverage toward buying back aforementioned family property plus some extra cash left over; also writes some letters supposedly coming from Marie Antoinette addressed specifically but discreetly to Louis de Rohan telling him everything about this transaction so there’s no suspicion whatsoever on part neither king nor anyone else within court circles who might have been able to detect such a thing.
Where was she coming from? Did she think that the queen had so many necklaces that she could not account for one more or less? And did she reckon that the cardinal would never dare mention it in any way shape or form? A Helena Bonham Carter, say, or Catherine Zeta Jones would be better suited for this kind of skullduggery (a word actually used in the film).
Hilary Swank, who was so good in “Boys Don’t Cry” (1999), has an air of honesty about her which is not what’s required here; also there’s something pluckily vulnerable about her even when playing Jeanne Valois who needs Monica Lewinsky gene i.e., capacity to imagine oneself embraced by greatness; above all else Bette Davis imperiousness should have been the order of day. Unfortunately though I know otherwise and fear too much sympathy will be wasted on Jeanne both on my part as well as that of Charles Shyer who directed “The Affair of the Necklace” and sent Swank astray with his instructions. It can only work if it realizes she’s just one baddie among others.
The supporting cast provides some incidental pleasures: Joely Richardson plays an affected but naïve Marie Antoinette who can fool herself easily enough but rarely anyone else; Jonathan Pryce turns cardinals into sinfully venal schemers whenever he’s given chance roles like these ones; while Christopher Walken makes every scheme seem like potential salvation even when none are offered up as suchlike by scriptwriters themselves.
Then there’s Adrien Brody doing nothing much at all except seeming weak willed next to useless type men often played opposite leading ladies such as Jeanne herself only this time round he gets paired off against Simon Baker playing someone similar namely man-about-town lady-killer types who date women like Jeanne while using them in order to get closer still towards crowns they seek.
However, the narration is completely ruined by the film’s decision to take Jeanne’s side. We can respect a person for being audacious, or we can feel sorry for them for being stupid enough to do something, but when a character performs an act of boldness without thinking through it first, those two feelings cancel each other out and all that’s left is comedy.
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