Film Notes: The Affair of the Necklace

I recently watched The Affair of the Necklace (2001), Charles Shyer's epic fact based tale of aristocratic scandal set just before the French Revolution. There is a lot to admire in this film including its wonderful cinematography, its impressive costumes, and its superb sets. The film, however, at least in my opinion, simply can't escape, until its final scenes, its hollow centre, namely the miscasting of Hillary Swank as the central character of the film Jeanne de Saint-Rimy de Valois. Like critic Roger Ebert I can't help but wonder what the film would have been like had someone like Helena Bonham Carter played Jeanne instead of Swank. British actors are simply, in my opinion, better at costume dramas than American actors by and large. Moreover, American accents just don't sound right to my ear in European costume dramas. All that said, The Affair of the Necklace is worth taking a look at, at least once.