The Affair Of The Necklace

Starring: Hilary Swank, Jonathan Pryce Director: Charles Shyer Original UK Premiere: 2002 Dvd Release: 8th July, 2002 Number Of Discs: 1 Format: PAL, Widescreen, Region 2 Encoding

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DVD Extras: The Affair of the Necklace is presented in a 2.35:1 widescreen visual aspect & has sumptuous Dolby 5.1 sound that does full justice to both dialogue & score. The film has generous extras, including a making of documentary & an intelligent piece on the show's design, as well as a director's commentary & deleted scenes which reveal more than we wanted to know about the hesitation & changes that mar the story-telling.

Widely ridiculed on its cinematic release, The Affair of the Necklace is a fascinating mixture of the spectacular, the romantic & the simply dreadful. Director Charles Shyer, best-known for mediocre comedies like Father of the Bride, leaps perhaps unwisely into the bodice-ripping palace intrigue genre. Admittedly Shyer does have an eye for spectacle, many of the Versailles scenes were shot there & Prague does its usual excellent service as pre-Revolutionary Paris, but he fumbles when it comes to telling the complicated story. The real-life scandal of Jeanne de la Motte-Valois, whose machinations crippled the French monarchy, was complicated enough, but Shyer manages to make it incomprehensible. Even the excellent Brian Cox cannot make the leaden narrative work successfully & some complicated, misleading games with time simply fail to do anything other than irritate.

Hilary Swank, excellent in Boys Dont Cry & Insomnia, is weirdly doll-like & passive as the con-woman La Motte-Valois & only excels in her role when she is pulling pistols on people. As her husband & lover, Adrian Brody & Simon Baker respectively have rather more chemistry, & Jonathan Pryce sweeps around as a depraved gullible cardinal. But the scene-stealers are Christopher Walken, who hams it up spookily as the psychic crook Cagliostro, & Joely Richardson, who plays Marie-Antoinette as an icy, charismatic bitch. The score is an irritating pot-pourri that avoids French music in favour of Bach, Handel & the just-about contemporary Mozart. The gorgeous frocks appear to be where most of the budget was blown, if only a little more was invested into making sense of the script.

Jonathan Pryce is a British actor born in Holywell, Wales. In 1974 he married actress Kate Fahy & they have three children. Pryce appeared with the Royal Shakespeare Company during the 1970s. A Welsh speaker, he appeared at the concert to launch the National Assembly for Wales, reciting poetry by Dafydd ap Gwilym. Something Wicked this Way Comes as Mr. Dark. The Adventures of Baron Munchhausen as Right Ordinary Horatio Jackson. Pirates of the Caribbean. The Curse of the Black Pearl as Gov. Weatherby Swann. Posters Of Jonathan Pryce

Editors Choice: Mad Dogs, The Affair Of The Necklace, Very Annie Mary, Regeneration, Tomorrow Never Dies, Carrington, Brazil, View DVDology

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