In the 1780s, some rogues conspired to gull a cardinal into buying a costly necklace on behalf of the queen of France. With smart writing and competent direction, the story might have yielded a good comedy. All writer John Sweet and director Charles Shyer had to do was follow the leads given in Charles Mackay’s witty Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds. Instead, the sentimental, sub-literate script tries to portray Jeanne (Hilary Swank), the chief plotter, as an advance guard for the French Revolution who’s bent on vindicating her martyred father.

This is one of those awful historical films in which the filmmakers’ idea of period style consists of wall-to-wall music, redundant narration, and randomly edited overcoverage of actors lost in huge sets. Much of the dialogue is meaningless. Here’s an exchange between Jeanne and the cardinal: "I have heard it said that your eminence is a man of copious desires." "Some desires are stronger than others." Later, someone says, "When a ray of hope came into my view, I reached for it with all my might." The actors are all forced to be bad — not even Christopher Walken gives a good performance.