Grace Of Monaco

 GRACE OF MONACO

Director : Olivier Dahan

Year : 2014

Genre : Drama

Rating : *

 

It is Charles De Gaulle's fault that Tippi Hedren starred in Alfred Hitchcock's 'Marnie'. Well, that's according to 'Grace Of Monaco', the wildly dubious biopic about the late, great screen icon Grace Kelly. Directed by 'La Vie En Rose's Olivier Dahan and starring Nicole Kidman as the eponymous actress turned princess, 'Grace Of Monaco' tells the rather questionable story of how Kelly transitioned from Hollywood royalty to genuine royalty and the subsequent battles she had with her husband Prince Rainier (played by Tim Roth) and subjects to appear in Hitchcock's 1964 thriller, as well as proving to her country that she can be a wise and noble leader.  Alongside the story of Kelly, the film also explores (and I use the term 'explores' very loosely indeed) Monaco's endeavours to prevent war with an indignant and demanding France over tax evasion.

While the film does look nice enough, with some authentic sets and luscious scenery providing some satisfactory eye candy, 'Grace Of Monaco' is ultimately let down by Dahans haphazard direction, a cumbersome and frankly idiotic screenplay, a number of pantomime level performances and it's unbelievably historically inaccurate plot.. At the heart of this maelstrom of inadequacy, we have Nicole Kidman, an undeniably fantastic actress who tries to bring some dimensionality and depth to her portrayal of Kelly. But in both performance technique and delivery, she fails to capture any of the inherent majesty or effervescent charm that made Grace Kelly the superstar she was.  

Supporting Kidman we have an ensemble cast which includes Tim Roth, Frank Langella, Robert Lindsay and  Roger Ashton - Grifftths (as an appalling Hitchcock) who give such mediocre performances and bring so little effort or charisma to the screen that they really do nothing to improve the quality or the entertainment value of the movie one iota. Dahan's intrusive and sloppy direction doesn't help matters either, with a number of wobbly camera moves, erratic pacing and far too many extreme close ups of Kidman's twinkling eyes to really allow us to take him or the film seriously. By the end credits, I didn't know whether to laugh at the patheticness of it all or cry over the reality of the two hours I had just wasted which could have been much better spent watching 'Godzilla' or '22 Jump Street' again.

The director is said to have quoted numerous times, ''I did not do any special research about Grace of Monaco'' and it shows. Horribly. Anyone who is remotely familiar with the life and career of Grace Kelly will very quickly realise that 'Grace Of Monaco' is a preposterous, sycophantic joke and no amount of nice looking establishing shots or simpering rosy cheeked niceties will change that. Playing fast and loose with both history and the truth, Dahan has created a film which is in turn offensively erroneous and insultingly pedestrian.