The Affair of the Necklace
Warner Bros. Pictures | Release Date: November 30, 2001 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
42
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 22 Critic Reviews
Positive:
4
Mixed:
14
Negative:
4
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
38
Boston GlobeJay Carr
Larceny at its most labored.
50
Chicago ReaderJonathan 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
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger 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
50
Chicago TribuneJohn 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
50
Christian Science MonitorDavid 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
50
Entertainment WeeklyOwen 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
50
L.A. WeeklyElla 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
70
Los Angeles TimesKevin 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
70
New Times (L.A.)Gregory Weinkauf
It's beautiful and obvious, a dubious combination that may nonetheless ensure its success. Read full review
50
New York Daily NewsJami Bernard
This sob story is a tough sell. Read full review
40
New York Magazine (Vulture)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
25
New York PostJonathan 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
50
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
The miscast (or misdirected) Hilary Swank's Jeanne takes so little pleasure in coquetry and manipulation. Read full review
50
SalonAndrew 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
50
San Francisco ChronicleEdward Guthmann
Plays like the cinematic equivalent of a paperback bodice- ripper with embossed type. Read full review
58
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam 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
40
The New York TimesDana Stevens
Drags and meanders when it wants clarity and clockwork, and bogs down in hazy, vague emotions. Read full review
70
TimeRichard 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.
50
TV Guide MagazineMaitland 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
63
USA TodayClaudia 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
20
VarietyTodd 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
30
Village VoiceJessica 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
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