Grace of Monaco
Director: Olivier Dahan
Writer: Arash Amel
Cast: Nicole Kidman, Tim Roth, Milo Ventimiglia, Parker Posey, Derek Jacobi, Paz Vega, Frank Langella, Yves Jacques

Plot:
Grace Kelly (Nicole Kidman) left her Hollywood career behind to marry Prince Rainier III of Monaco (Tom Roth). Despite relishing her family, above all her children, Grace feels out of place in Monaco. So when she gets a role offer, she is extremely tempted to take it. But her timing couldn’t be worse as Monaco is threatened to be taken over by France. So instead of acting in a film, Grace has to start acting the role of the princess.

Grace of Monaco tells a rather simple story and probably over-simplifies the entire situation a lot. But in all its simplicity it works just fine.

I guess the tagline says most of what the film is about: being a princess was the greatest role Grace Kelly would ever play – and she just had to accept it as her role and fulfill like she would fulfill any Hollywood role and things would be fine. I mean, according to the film, she pretty much single-handedly stopped the French from invading Monaco once she pretended to be a proper princess. Usually the part of women in historical events is downplayed quite dramatically. But this movie probably overdoes it too – only in the other direction.

And while that story is generally a little too streamlined, too boiled down to one particular thread, too molded into Hollywood shape, Dahan does a fine job telling it. He keeps you engaged and firmly in Grace’ camp. Only the camera work was a little weird – I didn’t know you could film anybody’s eyes in close-up as much as Eric Gautier filmed Nicole Kidman’s.

The cast wasn’t bad. Nicole Kidman does a fine job (seeing as she isn’t botoxed into mimiclessness here)*. Tim Roth wasn’t featured enough but he was great. I would have loved to see them interact a little more – most of the time they were in different scenes on their own. I also missed Grace interacting with her children. She keeps talking about how important they are and yet you barely see them together.

But altogether it was an enjoyable film, albeit one that trades historical accuracy and complexity for romantic cliches. A layered examination is something else entirely. But at least it’s entertaining.

Summarizing: Not particularly insightful, but okay to watch.

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*Though I still think that, at least look-wise, it should have been Rosamund Pike.