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"The Affair of the Necklace"
(Reviewed November 17, 2001)
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I hate to be callow, but the main thing that sinks this French-Revolution-era period piece is the fact that Hilary Swank is disastrously cast as a woman who is supposed to be seductively attractive to several
men. Yeah, sure, there's such a thing as inner beauty, and wouldn't it be swell if people could look beyond skin deep, but let's get real: Hilary Swank is no potential Playmate of the Month.
The movie's two other crucial faults are its "have it both ways" tone, which attempts to be dramatic most of the time but lapses into embarrassing wink-wink nudge-nudge sex farce at others; and
the fact that its central plot is so poorly explained that the movie's climax is bewildering. (Why is the Queen the object of scandal because a lying thief duped the Cardinal of France?)
Nice cinematography, but everything else about this movie is second-rate Hallmark Hall of Fame TV stuff.
Back Row Grade: F
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