Grace of Monaco premieres Monday night on Lifetime

grace-of-monaco-movie-ball-scene

Despite its very public slide from Cannes Film Festival opener and much-anticipated theatrical release to Lifetime movie of the week, you could do worse than to spend the waning hours of your Memorial Day watching Grace of Monaco. Especially if you’re a fan of Nicole Kidman and her considerable knack for playing steely stunners.

There. Permission granted to watch it and enjoy it. How you handle the rest is up to you.


If you approach Grace as a sort of weird amalgamation of golden-hued rags-to-riches princess tale and G-rated political-intrigue drama/mystery — rather an accurate biography of the cool blond Hollywood ingénue turned misunderstood princess — you’ll fare just fine. And that’s the movie’s problem: Who wants to do that?

Watching Grace (a thoroughly game Kidman) try to establish herself as a viable political and social partner for her husband, Monaco’s Prince Rainier III (an underused Tim Roth), while mulling a return to Hollywood stardom in her pal Alfred “Hitch” Hitchcock’s Marnie is good you-go-girl fun.

grace-of-monaco-movie-parker-poseyBut Grace of Monaco attempts to juggle that with a stern history lesson in Rainier’s battle to fend off Charles de Gaulle’s threat of military force unless the principality bolstered France’s war effort by taxing French businesses defecting to the sovereign tax haven. You know things are getting serious when the film’s sunny hue gives way to terse voices and dark rooms and everyone smiles even less than they do in the first place. Especially Parker Posey in a role that should be much more interesting than it ends up being.

By the film’s second half, Grace — on the advice of her homegrown confidante, Father Francis Tucker, to treat excelling as a princess as nailing the greatest role of her life — taps a protocol expert to teach her how to walk, talk and think like an authentic Monagasque to win over the regular folk. And in the meantime, she’s Nancy Drew in Chanel duds, sussing out the rats in the ranks and plotting to cajole her husband’s enemies and her own detractors into solidarity via a pivotal Red Cross Ball. (“You’re not really going to drop on Princess Grace, are you, Charles?” says a partygoer to de Gaulle. Oof.)

The film’s schizophrenic nature can likely be attributed  to the creative battles between its screenwriter Arash Amel, director Olivier Dahan (La Vie en Rose) and U.S. distributor Harvey Weinstein, which intensified after Monaco’s royal family denounced the project as a meritless work of fiction.

grace-of-monaco-movie-ball-scene

That said, the film is beautifully shot, frequently suggesting an homage to Kelly’s — and  especially during driving scenes, Hitchcock’s — films. And Kidman’s costumes are drool-worthy. Frank Langella as the beleagured Father Tucker is elegant throughout; his moments with Kidman are especially nice. And Paz Vega is luminous as Maria Callas, companion of Aristotle Onassis (Robert Lindsey, Atlantis) whose huge financial investments in Monaco’s draw for the super rich gave him far too much political pull.

But at the end of the day, this is Kidman’s show. How you feel about her is likely how you will feel about Grace.

grace-of-monaco-movie-1

Grace of Monaco premieres Monday, May 25, at 9/8CT on Lifetime.

Photos: Lifetime

 

About Lori Acken 1195 Articles
Lori just hasn't been the same since "thirtysomething" and "Northern Exposure" went off the air.