By EWAN McDONALD
(Herald rating: * * )
Hilary Swank, who made her name as a wannabe boy in jeans and check shirts and cropped hair, gets the petticoats and wigs and beauty spots to play Jeanne St Remy de Valois, orphaned young when her parents were involved in plots against
the French crown. She dreams of restoring her family name and returning to the childhood mansion.
She knows that Cardinal Louis de Rohan (Jonathan Pryce) wants to be prime minister. She convinces him that Marie Antoinette will support him if he gives the queen a necklace containing 647 diamonds. She gets the money from the cardinal and the necklace from the royal jeweller but uses it to buy her family home and forges letters from the queen to the cardinal to cover the deception. None of which is a good look as France is about to undergo a particularly bloody revolution. Mills and Boon on video.
• DVD features: movie (120min); commentary, director Charles Shyer; behind-the-scenes features The Making of a Scandal and Designing Affair; additional scenes with optional commentary; outtakes.
Rental video, DVD: Today
