Grace of Monaco (2014) - Few attractions in Dahan's deeply flawed biopic

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Nicole Kidman beautifully centered, dressed and made up on this glamorous poster for Olivier Dahan's Grace of Monaco

Grace Kelly is one of the world's most beautiful and adored movie stars, when she decides to retire early to be the princess of Monaco full-time in 1956. Five years later the small European country is on a collision course with France, while Grace is struggling to be in her new 'role'.

 

Grace of Monaco is written by writer/co-producer Arash Amel (Erased (2012)) and directed by great French filmmaker Olivier Dahan (Déjà Mort (1998)).

Kelly's story supplies luxurious, appealingly sounding material for the stars, who nevertheless should probably have read the script here with a more critical awareness. Partly we regrettably don't get an attachment to pre-Monaco Kelly, - either through a montage or otherwise, - partly Roger Ashton-Griffiths (Bright Star (2009)) far from strikes one as the world's greatest filmmaker in his portrait of Alfred Hitchcock; - partly André Penvern's (Vidocq (2001)) portrait of French president Charles de Gaulle is caricaturist; - partly Kelly's closest confidante is her Catholic priest (Frank Langella (Alegría (1999))), but their relation is only vaguely drawn, and they also never discuss anything religious! - But the list of problems for Grace of Monaco goes on beyond these...

Nicole Kidman (Paddington (2014)) does an honest job as Kelly, and Tim Roth also adorns the film nicely as prince Rainier, but Grace of Monaco's biggest attraction remains Kidman's hair and jewellery. Part of the problem also lies in our inability to agree with Kelly's decision to cling to Monaco: As audiences we would much rather see her leave the snobbish, small-minded gilded cage hell in favor of starring in Hitchcock's Marnie the way he wants her to. The romanticizing of the early 1960s is skillfully upset by the conflicted atmosphere that permeates the film. Unfortunately Grace of Monaco moves around too superficially in the certainly difficult period and person's life, which it attempts to portray. It fails as an engrossing biopic and climaxes in a nonsense-like speech, which Kelly gives at a grand Red Cross ball, - in itself an odd climax, - which adds the final weight that breaks the film. Unfortunately Grace of Monaco is just about completely bereft of profundity.

 

 

Watch a short trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 30 mil. $

Box office: 27.6 mil. $

= Huge flop (returned 0.92 times its cost)

[Grace of Monaco premiered 14 May (Cannes Film Festival, opening film, out of competition) and runs 103 minutes. Amel's script had appeared on the 2011 Hollywood Black List, a list of the most-liked unproduced scripts in tinseltown. Shooting took place from October - December 2012 in Italy, France, including Paris, Belgium, including Brussels, and in Monaco. The film was embroiled in controversy over its editing: Dahan's version premiered in Cannes; Amel's version was distributed by The Weinstein Company, whose head Harvey Weinstein decided not to release the film theatrically in North America; and a third cut was released as a Lifetime TV movie in North America. The film's 3 biggest markets were Japan with 5.7 mil. $ (20.7 % of the total gross), China with 4 mil. $ (14.5 %) and Italy with 2.5 mil. $ (9.1 %). The film was nominated for 2 Primetime Emmy awards. Dahan returns with Simone - Le Voyage du Siècle (2021). Kidman returned in Before I Go to Sleep (2014). Grace of Monaco is rotten at 9 % with a 3.40/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

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